UK Government refuses to ban DRM

Although the UK Government has rejected a call for digital rights management (DRM) to be banned in the UK, it also acknowledged that consumer rights could be undermined through the use of the technology.

Blogger Neil Holmes posted an online petition, calling for DRM to be outlawed, on the government’s e-petitions Web site. The petition, which warned that DRM could infringe consumers’ freedom of choice, was signed by 1,414 people.

The term DRM encompasses a number of technologies used by publishers to control access to and usage of digital data or hardware.

Holmes’s petition cited a 2006 investigation into DRM by the All Party Parliamentary Internet Group, an independent Parliamentary organisation.

This group advised that consumers should be protected against invasive technologies such as the rootkit-like program used by Sony on some music CDs in 2005.

Sony did not disclose that the DRM technology was installed on the CDs and the programme hid itself from the operating systems on people’s PCs.

This led to complaints from consumers that the inclusion of the technology violated their rights to full disclosure about the products they bought from Sony. The problem was made worse when virus writers used the technology to hide malicious software.

In its response to Holmes’s petition, the government said that DRM technology allowed content companies to offer the consumer unprecedented choice in how they wished to consume content and the price they wished to pay.

However, it also advised that the needs and rights of consumers should be safeguarded. It said consumers should be informed of exactly what is offered for sale, how and where they will be allowed to use the product, and of any restrictions that apply.