Digital Rights Management
Note: eEurope 2005 finished at the end of 2005.
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Events
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High
Level Group
Digital Rights Management Systems (DRMs) are technologies that describe and identify digital content protected by intellectual property rights, and enforce usage rules set by right-holders or prescribed by law for digital content. DRMs are thus an important complement to the legal framework.
'Directive 2001/29/EC'
In the EU the legal framework establishing these rights is set out in Directive 2001/29/EC of 22nd May 2001 on the harmonisation of copyright and related rights in the Information Society. Member States must transpose the rules set out in the Directive into national law by December 2002.
Digital technologies have transformed the copyright environment and have given rise to a potentially huge market for content. The advent of broadband networks and their capacity to transmit large volumes of multimedia content at high speeds emphasises the importance of ensuring that digital content is available under the appropriate conditions, which meet the interests of both right holders and users.
The Directive supports the use of DRMs by protecting technical measures, and by requiring Member States to take into account the application and non-application of technological measures when providing for fair compensation in the context of the private use exception for which fair compensation is required.
The Directive also calls for voluntary measures by industry to protect copyrighted material while ensuring interoperability and compatibility of different systems in the protection of copyrighted material.
Staff Working Paper
Against this background, the European Commission is open to playing a facilitating role aimed at encouraging the different stakeholders to tackle outstanding DRM issues together and find common ground. To this end, a Commission Staff Working Paper on DRMs has been published and a group of stakeholders were invited to kick off a dialogue at a Workshop held in Brussels on 28 February 2002.
Workshops
Three DRM Workshops were held, the first on 28 February 2002, the second on 25 March 2003, and the third on 6 April 2005. As a result four working groups were established.
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Last update: 27/01/2010
