Earthweb is a network of publications focused on the needs of IT professionals. All of the publications are available as Web sites and newsletters at no charge.

DRMwatch is published by Jupitermedia Corporation

Jupitermedia Corp. is a leading provider of global real-time news, information, research and media resources for information technology, Internet industry and graphics professionals. For more information, visit our corporate Web site.

From the Managing Editor...

I run GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies, a management consultancy focused on the content industries. At GiantSteps, we help our clients,  primarily media companies and digital media technology vendors, achieve growth through market intelligence and our expertise in business strategy and technology architecture. My consulting practice spans many different areas of digital content technology, including content management, editorial and production systems, cross-media publishing, streaming media, and digital product design as well as DRM and other digital rights technologies.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that DRM Watch may from time to time publish articles on companies that are current or past clients of GiantSteps. We make every effort to maintain editorial independence and separate the concerns of DRM Watch and its readership from those surrounding client relationships, which may include nondisclosure obligations.)

My involvement with digital rights management began in 1994, while I was working at Times Mirror Co., a diversified publishing company whose divisions are now owned by Tribune Co., Reed Elsevier, McGraw-Hill, and others. I was asked to represent Times Mirror on a publishing industry standards committee that was looking into copyright issues in the emerging world of online content. Through my work with this standards committee, I was introduced to early DRM technology and helped design the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), now an established standard for online content commerce and rights management. Since then, I have worked on both the vendor and content owner sides of DRM strategy, deployment, investment, and litigation support. You can learn more about my background if you wish.

In 2001, Hungry Minds (now John Wiley & Sons) approached me about writing a book on DRM. The result is Digital Rights Management: Business and Technology, which was published in late 2001. As soon as the book went into production, in September 2001, I started DRM Watch as a website to keep up with all of the developments in this fast-moving field that happened too late to make it into the book. A few months later, I created a free email newsletter service as a companion to the website. DRM Watch has been the only newsletter devoted exclusively to the digital rights technologies market. Jupitermedia acquired DRM Watch in October 2003, and I continue to edit it in partnership with them.

DRM Watch gets its material from many sources, including direct contact with technology vendors, content providers, standards committees, and various other industry players. We publish stories on developments that I feel are of interest to a broad cross-section of people in the content and technology industries, developments that represent the forward motion of the industry. We report on things that actually happened, not (in most cases) on pre-announcements, promises, or opinions, and we maintain a healthy skepticism and "show me" attitude towards all sides of the industry.  Through our analysis, I hope to filter out hype and draw attention to the trends that I feel will lead to the future.

My philosophy is that digital rights technologies enable much more than media piracy prevention: they should be fundamental building blocks in the dissemination and transfer of information through digital networks.  As Lawrence Lessig says in his book Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, technology is one of four empirical forces that determine how people and businesses conduct themselves, others being laws, markets, and societal norms. We can argue about how those four forces do or should balance each other out, but my belief is that when it comes to digital content, markets and technology are ultimately the most powerful forces.  Many attempts to manipulate the other two to control them are doomed to failure, especially when they are driven by people who fundamentally do not understand or appreciate technology and how it interacts with market forces.

I am fascinated by DRM as a field because of its multidisciplinary character, taking in law and business models as well as technology, and I hope that reading DRM Watch helps increase your fascination too. DRM is a highly complex, often misunderstood field, and the more everyone understands it, the better off we will all be in the end. I encourage your dialog and feedback at all times as we continue to develop DRM Watch.

Several guest columnists contribute pieces to DRM Watch occasionally on my invitation. These are all consultants affiliated with GiantSteps; all of them bring special expertise in relevant areas. Our guest writers include:

• Azita Arvani -- mobile technologies, wireless industry
• Bill Jones -- UK and European copyright and technology public policy
• Brett Sheppard -- Enterprise DRM and corporate IT security
• Olin Sibert -- cryptography and security
• Solveig Singleton -- US copyright law and technology public policy

Note to Publicists and Vendor Representatives:

DRM Watch is a weekly that normally publishes on Thursday afternoons.

We encourage all vendors of DRM-related technologies to send press releases and other news to us. Information should be sent to us by mid-day Wednesday (US east coast time) to be considered for the week's issue. We strongly respect embargoes. Announcements from vendors must be posted on public websites to be considered -- if not the vendor's own website, then PR Newswire or equivalent. Sorry, we do not publish press releases verbatim, nor do we accept unsolicited outside contributions.

We regularly and gratefully receive news items from multiple sources, and we reserve the right to exercise editorial control over our publication. Here are some guidelines on news items pertaining to technology vendors, particularly early stage vendors.

DRM Watch publishes stories about news events that move the DRM industry forward.  Here are some examples of stories about technology vendors that move the industry forward:

• Signed deal with a customer that is large in the media industry.
• Signed corporate volume deal (multiple business unit, multiple thousand seats) for an Enterprise DRM deployment.
• Signed deal that is significant in opening up DRM opportunities in a new industry (e.g., distance learning, financial services, healthcare).
• Major technology vendor OEMs or otherwise adopts startup vendor’s technology.
• DRM-based online content service with significant new business model launched.
• New DRM-related standard, or new major version of a DRM-related standard, is released with sufficiently broad industry support.
• New, nontrivial adoption or implementation of a DRM-related standard.
• Exciting technology breakthrough at the research level.
• Significant patent granted.
• Resolution of patent dispute.
• Significant merger or acquisition.
• Major layoffs, bankruptcy, or ceasing of operations.

Here are some examples of announcements that, in most cases, we do not report on:

• Strategic partnerships among vendors (joint marketing, resale agreement, etc.).
• New marketing or sales initiatives.
• Winning of awards from magazines, trade shows, etc.
• Reaching of milestones or "momentum" (100th customer signed, 5th year in business, beat last quarter's revenues by 50%, etc.)
• Mention in analyst firm research report.
• New product or technology concept, unproven with customers.
• Executive appointments or internal reorganizations.
• Closing of funding rounds.
• Customer deals that are similar to those about which DRM Watch recently published a story.
• Minor customer deals.
• Release of new version of software without significant customer deployment.
• Patent applied for.
• Patent granted that is a continuation or minor extension of an existing patent.