HTML5 and the Digital Rights Management

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a class of controversial technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders, and individuals. It is used to control the use of digital content and devices after sale. So DRM is a set of access control technologies and highly discussed in the context of HTML5, as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published a draft proposal that would make DRM a part of HTML5.

Well, industrial players including Google, Microsoft, and Netflix (an American provider of on-demand Internet streaming media) have been lobbying for the inclusion of Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), a form of Digital Rights Management, into the HTML5 standard as they would benefit greatly by the approval. The EME allows JavaScript to select content protection mechanism and its goal is to reduce piracy on the web.

In the beginning of 2013, 27 organizations have started a campaign against Digital Rights Management in the HTML5 standard. However, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, defends the DRM in HTML5 and claimed this step as necessary to get more content on the open web. So again, what can DRM do? Well, it restricts what you can do with software or data in general. So it should keep you from using copyrighted material in a way, the publisher does not want you to use it.

Now how would DRM affect you? This question is not easy to answer, because it depends on how what products you use and how you use them. But one thing is for sure: The restrictions have become tighter. So for example with DRM it is possible that you can make copies of audio content, but only at low quality. Another example would be that iTunes content could not be shared.

The plan of the W3C is to finish HTML5 by 2014. So we are very excited to follow the development and especially the discussions regarding the DRM. What do you think about this topic? Write a comment and share your opinion!