DRM and Social Norms

First Monday:Digital rights management and the breakdown of social norms by Christopher May

At the centre of the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) is a long history of political bargains struck between private rights to reward and the social benefit of information/knowledge diffusion. The historical dynamic of politics in this policy area has been to expand the rights of owners while circumscribing the public realm of information and knowledge. In recent decades the public domain has become merely a residual, all that is left when all other rights (as constructed by IPRs) have been exercised. The advent of digital rights management (DRM) technologies has disturbed a reasonably legitimate politico-legal settlement over "fair use," challenging the existing balance between the rights of "creators" and the interests of users. The breakdown of the norms underpinning IPRs has prompted renewed debate regarding their legitimacy.

DRM not only imposes an artificial scarcity on digital goods, so that they more closely resemble physical goods, but can make access more restrictive than with analog media. Must digital media allow the same level of public access and use as traditional media, or should copyright owners be allowed to granularly control how their expressions are used? Where is the proper balance between absolute protection and the public's fair uses?