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Microsoft Awarded Patent For Peer-To-Peer DRM

Posted by kdawson on from the in-it-for-the-royalties dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Music DRM might not be as dead as previously thought. InformationWeek reports that Microsoft has been awarded a digital-rights management patent for a distributed DRM system that works over peer-to-peer networks and uses encrypted public and private keys as the licensing mechanism. The author claims that patent number 7,594,275, entitled simply 'Digital rights management system,' is significant because, while centralized music stores like iTunes don't use DRM anymore, the Microsoft patent makes it possible that peer-to-peer networks could reemerge in the future as a viable, albeit protected, source of content."

3 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. So let me get this straight... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Up until this point I have two ways of downloading content: Quick and easy from a dedicated server, but DRMed, or slowly and unreliably from peer-to-peer networks, but DRM-free.

    So now Microsoft kindly offers me a service that has all the slowness and unreliability that peer-to-peer networks, while keeping all the restrictions of DRM? Brilliant!

  2. Simple question by dascandy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do you want me to have the content or not?

    If you want me to have the content, you can't make me unhave the content.
    If you don't want me to have the content, *just sod off already*.

    There's no place for DRM in the world. It's fundamentally flawed at its principles.

  3. Re:Question by tsa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I never heard of anyone ending a friendship over an operating system. I'm glad I don't have you as a friend.

    --

    -- Cheers!