Maryland Researchers Unveil DRM Technology

Researchers at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering have developed digital rights management (DRM) technology that they say is highly resistant to the dilution that afflicts other DRM tools when many users collude on piracy. With most DRM technology, if 100 users work together to create a pirated copy of a movie, for example, the digital “fingerprint” is diluted 100 times, making it very difficult to identify those responsible. According to Assistant Professor Min Wu at the Clark School, with the new technology, if a group of users collude to copy a protected file, the researchers can identify all of those who participated. The new DRM technology can be used to protect movies, songs, images, and other documents. Sony BMG, which was recently involved in a brouhaha over attempts to add its own DRM protection, has expressed interest in the technology, as has the U.S. Department of Defense.

PCWorld, 13 March 2006