DRM technology might actually be good for customers because it gives them more choices for downloading or buying copyrighted content, an FTC conference has been told.

Flying in the face of the general perception that Digital Rights Management is useless and the fact that there had been some high profile failures of such technology, speakers seemed to want to praise the technology rather than bury it.

James DeLong, a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF), a conservative think tank, said that DRM could lead to prices that were more useful to consumers. They could pay $3 for a digital copy of a book that they will only read once instead of $30 for a book that will sit on their shelves for years after they have read it, he said.

However he said this against the evidence. Similar ideas for "disposable DVDs" or "closed home-video systems" such as DIXV and Flexplay have flopped. But he claimed that limited-use works will be cheaper than unlimited works.

Andrew Moss, senior director of technical policy at Microsoft said that DRM will be important to consumers as more of them began to create their own digital content. DRM will allow them to control how their creations are used and give people choices," he claimed.

Other panel members revealed that even a sniff of DRM was enough to kill off the development of a product.

Urs Gasser, director of the Research Center for Information Law at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, told of survey results that suggest consumers would be willing to pay twice as much for a music download they could play on more than one device or share with a small number of friends.

He said that before DRM technologies, consumers didn't have to pay extra for those things and they do not see why they should now. But if push comes to shove they will pay up to keep those freedoms.

Deirdre Mulligan, director of the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, Law School said consumers don't understand DRM restrictions, and they're surprised when a CD that works on a home stereo can't be played somewhere else. X

Check Out
Computerworld