Towards a general framework for Digital Rights Management (DRM)
Alapan Arnab · Open University of Cape Town (University of Cape Town) · 2007
Digital rights management (DRM) can be defined as a technology that enables persistent access control.The common understanding of DRM is that of a technology that enables means to thwart piracy of digital multimedia through limiting how the media is used by the consumer.It can be observed that many of these restrictions can be applied to any type of data.Therefore, it should be possible to create a two part DRM system -a common DRM system that enforces the basic access controls (such as read, write and execute) and an application specific DRM system that enforces the application specific access controls (such as print and play).The aim of this dissertation is to create such a framework for distribution independent DRM systems.Prof. Julien Hofman, who has been my unofficial, secondary supervisor.His insight of electronic law, and his guidance in exploring the legal position of DRM gave a new dimension to the direction of my research.Mr. Marlon Paulse and Mr. Duncan Bennett, who took the challenge of implementing a DRM controller (and still follow my design