Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a way to use software, and related means, to control the use of digital content and devices after sale. First generation DRM software was used to control copying, second generation DRM is used to control executing, viewing, copying, printing and altering of works or devices. The term is also sometimes referred to as copy protection, copy prevention, and copy control.

Digital locks placed in accordance with DRM policies can also restrict users from exercising their legal rights under copyright law, such as backing up copies of CDs or DVDs, lending materials out through a library, accessing works in the public domain, or using copyrighted materials for research and education under the US fair use laws.

Definition According to Defective By Design

source: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management

Digital Restrictions Management is the practice of imposing technological restrictions that control what users can do with digital media. When a program is designed to prevent you from copying or sharing a song, reading an ebook on another device, or playing a single-player game without an Internet connection, you are being restricted by DRM. In other words, DRM creates a damaged good; it prevents you from doing what would be possible without it. This concentrates control over production and distribution of media, giving DRM peddlers the power to carry out massive digital book burnings and conduct large scale surveillance over people's media viewing habits.

If we want to avoid a future in which our devices serve as an apparatus to monitor and control our interaction with digital media, we must fight to retain control of our media and software.