DRM (Digital Rights Management) Solutions?

[Lee]

I know a couple of the GWW community members use DRM on their sites so i wanted to find out a couple of things..

1) Who do you use as your DRM provider?
2) Has adding DRM made any positive effect on your overall sales?

We're working on some new stuff here and DRM keeps coming up in conversations so im looking to get as much info about it as possible so we can make a solid business decision.

I have to admit that initially im sceptical about implementing DRM however, im sure there are reasons to implement it that i havent considered so any additional information you can offer would also be appreciated

Regards,

Lee

[BDBionic]

We've implemented DRM for several of our clients as well as assisted others in training/teaching/setting them up to manage their own DRM encoding. Once you get it down it's extremely easy and doesn't really add much in the way of time or effort to regular digitizing/encoding.

That's been our experience with it, at least. That it requires a bit of learning at the get go but once that's been accomplished it doesn't require any extra effort beyond what you'd be putting in if you're already digitizing files in the first place (from VHS hardcopies to .mov or .mpg and such).

The following is an article I wrote on it for Cybersocket Magazine that comes out in the Nov. issue but as this thread's up here now, I figured I'd give ya a sneak peek:

Dream a Little DRM

How to adequately protect multimedia content from illegal distribution has been a constant source of frustration for webmasters. Pirated content, related bandwidth cost issues, and the loss of control over proprietary content - along with the damage all of the above can cause to a site's earnings - are part and parcel to operating a multimedia website. Thankfully, resourcefulness has brought about a viable option for webmasters distributing digital content over the net in the form of Microsoft's Digital Rights Management, or DRM.

As described by Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...m/default.aspx), DRM is a proven and secure content delivery platform for the playback of multimedia files on computers. Content is encrypted and locked, the key to opening it existing within a likewise encrypted license over which the distributor retains control.

In English? You distribute your content, and can set certain criteria that will allow it to be viewed or listened to. Practical applications include requiring someone have an active membership to the website from which the content was acquired, setting a set time period during which the file can be accessed, limiting a content file from being accessed on more than one computer, and making sure that only people who get content directly from you can access it (cutting out those who may acquire it down the line from friends, P2P networks, burned CDs and DVDs, etc.). Participation in this process takes little effort from the consumer, as well. If an end user can check e-mail or log in to a website, they have the skills required to navigate the authorized license acquisition process.

Obviously, the benefits DRM can provide webmasters and producers are quite clear. However, as with any decision made on behalf of business, multiple factors play in to the decision on whether or not to encrypt your site's files for DRM.

Microsoft's Digital Rights Management works only with PCs running a Windows OS and an updated version of Windows Media Player. Mac users, unfortunately, won't be able to take advantage of DRM. Though a small percentage of total computer users, potentially alienating any portion of your target audience and consumer base is never an appealing prospect. The most effective means of keeping Mac and non-Windows users happy is continuing to offer non-Microsoft options with multimedia files. Just as a webmaster distributing video files on their website does (or at least, should!) offer both PC-standard and Mac-standard formats, they can continue to offer non-DRM streaming content to Mac and anti-Microsoft users and introduce DRM-enabled content to the majority of their users who are on Windows PCs.

Getting the vast majority of your content's users to apply the DRM technology would greatly cut down on bandwidth usage as those surfers are no longer required to log in to your website and actively stream the content whenever they wish to experience it and make the vast majority of your distributed files protected and licensed.

The potential not only to prevent loss but also increase new earnings with DRM is very real. With most multimedia membership sites operating on a recurring membership base model, making active membership a requirement to access content could greatly increase total revenues. The days of trial or short term members entering a website and downloading every piece of content within, running up a massive bandwidth tally, and disappearing in to the night with untold gigs of your content to enjoy indefinitely or share with their friends could very well be over.

The greatest obstacle to DRM and like technology is not cost or compatibility. With more and more programmers and service providers mastering the art of DRM-encrypting and set up, the cost of implementing the system could very well be negligible, making for quite the ROI. No doubt there will be RealPlayer and Mac options as well in the very near future that eliminate compatibility variables from consideration. Rather, sensitivity and internet culture are the greatest obstacles to blanket implementation of DRM in, for example, the internet’s most multimedia-heavy industry – adult. With consumers used to so many free content options and the notion of a site membership – regardless of however long it is for or how much they spent on it – constituting a bulk purchase of every byte of content made available on the site, suggesting to anyone their membership is a subscription rather than purchase is sometimes difficult. Further, so many webmasters obsess over initial conversions above and beyond thought given to recurring memberships and fear the prospect of discouraging an entitlement-sensing surfer from buying that initial membership.

Regardless, DRM is a very real and viable option already being used many multimedia membership sites with more implementing DRM everyday. Many webmasters are discovering creative ways to use DRM as a clever marketing tool. Gradually, as DRM and like content become the standard and mentalities of entitlement and service adapt as a result, multimedia distributors are set to enjoy brighter days of protected and secure content and greatly increased earnings and profit.

[BDBionic]

As far as the effects it's had with sites we've implemented it on, they are as various as the degrees to which it's been implemented.

We've used DRM for PPV type solutions. We've used DRM to implement almost draconian type protective measures on content. We've used DRM for very basic protective needs that surfers haven't even really noticed. For promotional tools (giving out free content that expires after a little while and directs the user to the website at that point). All kinds of things. And it's been great with all fo them.

Suffice to say we're quite fond of it. There have, at times and more dependent on the manner in which it was introduced to the site than the fact that it was in the first place, been complaints by members about DRM. But I'm of the belief that for ever member pissed off and alienated at the implementation of DRM, there are 5 more new members who never would have paid for the content at all were it not for DRM. And that it pays for itself. It's most definitely had a positive effect on sales, from what we've observed in the 10 or so sites we've implemented DRM on to. Across the board. We've been able to decrease bandwidth costs with these sites while at the same time increasing recurring memberships.

It should be noted real quick that there are a great many different degrees to which DRM can be implemented on a site and applied to the content. For example with some sites the owners wanted to require people to have an active membership for the license to be valid. On others, the licenses never expire and the DRM just exists to make sure they can't view the file on any computer but the one the license was initially acquired on. On others, the license required reacquisition every 2 days. On others, it was incorporated in to PPV or was used more as a tracking mechanism than anything else (tracking time the user was viewing files to count it against their PPV account balance).

I'm a big fan of it and I'd very much like to see the day come where all sites with original content used it.

[RainGurl]

hey lee have you talked with tucker from playa solutions?

[Dawgy]

so how do you implement it?

only company i know of is owned by ccbill, and they basically said we couldnt use it unless we hosted and processed with them.

[Mindy]

We are just going live with a windows media drm system From Object Cube. We now have to go back and encode 12,000 movies for windows media. YEAH!!!!!

Jay the owner of Object Cube is a wealth of information, it has been a long time coming but we are pleased that the integration has started.

[drm systems]

Before you make any decisions, give us a hollar. We can answer any questions that you may have...

[Lee]

Thanks for the info everyone :thumbsup:

Regards,

Lee