By Tim Riley

'Digital Rights Management', or DRM as it is commonly known, is a phrase that can mean different things to different people.  Used in one sense (probably the traditional sense), those three letters can strike fear and anger into the hearts of technology and content consumers.  In another sense, they convey a benevolent feeling of creativity and entrepreneurship.

 
For major record labels and tech companies DRM means the software they insert to restrict the use of their products (generally anti-copying devices).  In the early to mid-2000s this was often done in an aggressive and covert manner, causing hostility amongst the users of these products and services (the Sony rootkit scandal comes to mind or the technology Apple uses to ensure that its products and services can only be used with each other).

But you’re not global tech companies or major label record companies.  And if you are, you don’t need my help or advice.  This article is directed at creative entrepreneurs who make digital content and who need to understand how to manage their stuff online.  And this is what I mean by DRM for the purposes of this article – not how to stop people viewing, using, experiencing, hearing, or taking part in your creative output, but how to efficiently allow them to do those things in a way that keeps you (relatively) in control of your rights.

The rights we are talking about are license rights, and they all stem from your ownership of copyright in the original work.  So ownership of copyright (or at least an unrestricted right to exercise the copyright) is an essential prerequisite.  Because digital rights can be broken up into a number of separate usage rights, each of which can attract its own revenue stream (or at least its own audience – getting revenue is a whole other topic…), administering one digital item can be like administering a whole portfolio of physical properties.
   
Music

Taking a sound recording as an example, if you have written and recorded a song you can, all at the same time:

• Make it available as a free streaming file on a site like theaudience.co.nz  

• License it to spotify.co.nz in exchange for a share of advertising and subscription revenues

• Sell it as a download on itunes or amplifier 

• License the synchronisation and mechanical rights to a web based global publisher like songservice.com.

If you are a musical artist, there are now companies (called “aggregators”) that can be contracted to manage (some of) these various rights on your behalf.  Digital Rights Management Limited (or “DRM” as they call themselves) is one such entity.  DRM is part of Amplifier, the online music retail service referred to above.  DRM represents artists (or the owners of sound recording copyrights).  DRM places tracks with a number of different online services and administers the tracks on behalf of the copyright owners (including collecting and paying out any revenue earned).

Visual Arts

Music, as a naturally digital art form has always adapted well to the internet environment.  But anything that can be converted to a digital file can obviously be exploited or exhibited online.  In the “fine art” field (if that description still means anything) artists have been exploring the creative opportunities available in the digital workspace for a number of years.  Although there is still some consumer resistance to the idea of digital art – how can I hang a video on my wall? – a number of artists such as NZ/Korean artist Hye Rim Lee (hyerimlee.com and starkwhite.co.nz) have been exploring the creative opportunities available in the medium for some time now.
 
For an artist, working in this field means:

• establishing relationships with people (for example, vfx producers and post-production houses) that are not found in the traditional art-world; and

• exploring new approaches to exhibition and sales (looking at projected images and television screens in a gallery is all very well, but you have to persuade people to buy something to take home).  

Sites like s[edition] are bridging that gap. S[edition] offers for sale limited edition works by leading contemporary artists like Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin.  Works can be purchased for as little as $8.00 and are delivered, along with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist to your “vault” on the site.  From the vault you can view your artworks on any computer or other device that connects to the internet and (for still images) can download the work and send it to your mobile, tablet, or other device.

For fine art, like anything else on the internet, it’s about giving people something they are prepared to pay for amongst the almost infinite amounts of free stuff available.
 
There are two key components of the s[edition] model that will help people to part with money:

• the cachet of very well known (and often controversial) artists together with the certificate of authenticity will be central to the decision to buy (how many people get to say they own an original Tracy Emin)?  

• the certificate of authenticity – this enables purchasers (“collectors” as they are referred to on the site) to enter the market and sell the art themselves (once the limited editions run out and the works therefore have a value beyond the original purchase price).

Film/TV

Effective management of digital rights is also becoming more and more important in the film industry.  Other than as a distribution method, there are really two ways to look at using the internet if you own the rights in a film:

• a promotional tool – something to drive viewers to the film; or

• an alternative medium for telling the story in the film

The first of these is the standard approach for commercial films, although it can still be carried out in an interesting way.  I like this site – weylandindustries.com, which was set up by the producers of the film Prometheus.  It’s the ultimate geek site and great for those who are fascinated by backstories.
 
A couple of examples that I love of the use of the internet as an alternative storytelling medium are:

waterlife.nfb.ca/ and thewhalehunt.org/.  

These sites show the incredible richness and power of online tools that can be brought to telling a story.

And in film and TV, as in music, there are companies carrying out the role of aggregators, to save you the time and effort of managing your rights yourself across a range of uses.  Madman Entertainment, for example – madman.co.nz is one such entity.

Writing/Publishing

In the literary world, managing rights is the business of the publisher and if you are a professional writer it’s not something you traditionally had to spend too much time thinking about. But as it is in music, so it is in literature, and it is now possible to self-publish a book on the internet.  There’s nothing to stop anyone pulling that great unpublished novel out from under the bed, setting up a website and loading your opus on to it.

However, if you want anyone to read it, and you want it to be in a format that is downloadable to a book-reading device like a Kindle or iPad, then you might want to utilise the services of an online self-publishing service like Feedbooks.

Of course it’s not just books that get published on the net.  Electronic publishing is becoming more and more common in the science world for publication of articles and may even be taking the place of peer reviewed journals.  The Wikipedia page contains a good general summary.

For self-publishers of written works, the world is not as evolved as it is for creators of musical works.  There are fewer established services for managing and administering your rights, and less commercial options for exploiting them.  There is also probably less recognition of the sanctity of your ownership rights.  People pass around articles and other written works quite freely on the internet without too much regard for copyright.  It’s hard to imagine for example, Google feeling that it is entitled to copy and store every musical work in the world, as it seems to feel able to do with written works.

At the end of the day though (I had to put that phrase somewhere in this article) the same principles apply when you are looking at submitting your work to a third party, and these are set out below in the next section.

Things to think about

Managing your digital rights effectively really means managing someone else to do that for you.  When looking at entrusting your rights to another person for the purpose of selling, exhibiting, or otherwise using your work, the key questions to consider are:

• Exactly what rights am I giving them and how long for (and what rights have I retained)?

• Can I get the rights back earlier if the relationship doesn’t work out?

• What sorts of restrictions will this place on any other intended uses I have for my work?

• Where in the world and in what media will this person be entitled to deal with the rights?

• What sort of reporting requirements to me do they have (both in terms of sales they make and financial reporting) and do I have an audit right?

Whatever it is you are promoting and selling online, the most important thing to managing your rights is to deal with established businesses that know what they are doing and that have the processes in place to protect and manage your rights.  Do your research!  Talk to other people in your industry, and ask questions in forums like The Big Idea.