Both The Last Samurai and Big Fish hit the news regarding pirated screeners. The Last Samurai © 2003 Warner Bros. — All rights reserved. Production photo credit: David James. Big Fish © Columbia TriStar. All rights reserved.

DRM in the News
The protection concept was in the press a lot in recent months, especially in Southern California and other areas, where the banning of Academy screeners garnered strong reaction on both sides of the issue in print and on the many talk radio programs. The screener matter is important due to the ongoing fight against piracy of motion pictures, a problem pegged at more than $3 billion per year. The high profile nature of movies is the basis for the publicity surrounding this issue.

However, the challenge extends way beyond the use of screeners and monitoring of whom gets access to the films being considered for Academy Awards. For those involved in the digital content creation business, it starts on day one when storyboards are created as a basis for determining how and in which ways the end product will be created, necessitating that the storyboards and animatics created must be protected. The process should continue throughout the entire production process and on into the distribution cycle. Each distribution window has its own set of DRM requirements and rules that may apply throughout the product’s life cycle. Protecting content at all points in the value chain is of paramount importance.

Before letting go of your digital data, you should set rules so your rights stay right where they belong. Photo courtesy of iStockPhoto.com.

Media DRM
One only needs to look at the music industry, over the past few years to understand the impact that not protecting content can have. According to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, sales in 2003 dropped 7.1% over 2002, which experienced an 8.9% decrease over the prior year.

So, what can be done? Having a firewall to protect against outsiders hacking in is insufficient. There are times when content that is created by the entertainment industry, including work in process, must be sent outside the creating organization’s facility as a fundamental part of the process, even if it gets set up on an FTP site for other legitimate users to see. For companies that are selling completed product, the protection is even more important to prevent unauthorized burning of movies, TV shows and other content on to DVDs where further distribution could occur.

To adequately protect themselves and their customers, content creation companies need to apply DRM rules to their content. The following should be considered as the rules are developed:

• Rights need to be conveyed – i.e. providing the keys to the content. These rights may include unique identifiers to enhance the user audit trail;
• Encryption alone is not sufficient – although it is an important tool as well;
• DRM’s purpose is to allow content to be decrypted – by those who have the rights;
• Rights must be renewed periodically and should not be set up in perpetuity;
• Rights can be different on the same product for various reasons as determined by the owners – this is akin to sending someone a Word file and another a PDF file;
• Rights may be withdrawn for whatever reason the content owner deems necessary.