Does Lessig's criticism of digital rights management target one technology that the information industries desire more than they can actually provide?
Yu-Lin Chang · International Review of Law Computers & Technology · 2005
According to Lessig's idea of ‘code is law’, digital rights management (DRM) is seen as a technology with perfect control and has great potential for offering persistent and permanent protection for the digital content that information industries own. Moreover, some consider that DRM is powerful enough to replace copyright law in protecting digital products. Clearly, such a conclusion about DRM is problematic. As we know, perfect control is impossible because no technology is 100% secure. Some circumvention cases can provide evidence of this. Paradoxically, Lessig's criticism of DRM seems to have come true. Backed up with the force of anti-circumvention provisions, although there are lots of technological flaws and ongoing legal arguments, DRM has been one technology that information industries desire more than they can actually provide.