Digital Rights Management
Digital rights management (DRM) is a systematic approach to copyright protection for digital media. DRM's purpose is to prevent illegal distribution of paid content over the Internet. DRM products were developed in response to the rapid increase in online piracy of commercially marketed material, which proliferated through the widespread use of Napster and other peer-to-peer file exchange programs. DRM products are available from a number of vendors, including ContentGuard, Digimarc, and InterTrust, to automate the processes involved. In general, DRM products are turnkey packages that include everything needed for the operation, such as, for example, server software and user plug-ins.