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Aboriginal Archive Uses New DRM

ianare writes "An application that gives fresh new meaning to 'digital rights management' has been pioneered by Aboriginal Australians. It relies on a user's profile to control access to a multimedia archive. The need to create profiles based on a user's name, age, sex and standing within their community comes from traditions over what can and cannot be viewed. For example, men cannot view women's rituals, and people from one community cannot view material from another without first seeking permission. Images of the deceased cannot be viewed by their families. These requirements threw up issues surrounding how the material could be archived, as it was not only about preserving the information into a database in a traditional sense, but also about how people would access it depending on their gender, their relationship to other people, and where they were situated."

2 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. Information just wants to be Free by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I always go into the Dreamtime and become a female Roo when I want to access information about female rituals.

    Your mileage may vary, of course.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  2. Re:Given your comment, I'm wondering... by Srin+Tuar · · Score: 0, Offtopic



    You look at an example of why someone wants an access control system like this and you still have to ask?


    The grandparent is correct and you are missing the point.

    One of these two must be true:
    a) they want to honor their cultural taboos, and they don't need a system to enforce it upon them
    or
    b) they want to break their cultural taboos, and DRM is powerless to enforce it upon them.

    Either way, DRM is useless.