Posted on Oct 31, 2022

Digital Rights Management

DRM
Does it really affect me ?! 🤔

What if you buy a new e-book but can't read it on the reading software of your choice - DRM.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies tend to have control over what you can and cannot do with the software and hardware of your belongings. Corporations propose arguments that these DRMs avoid copyright infringement and keep consumers away from viruses. However in reality, these cut down the market competition they face and manipulate consumers to act as per the "T&C".

DRM has proliferated thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), which sought to outlaw any attempt to bypass DRM.

Let's have a look at a real life example of this.

Printers - Earlier DRM over ink cartridges , now paper as well !!!

A printer has two input requirements : ink and paper. Printers use ink cartridges, which need to be replaced later. Many manufacturers control the cartridges that can be used for their printers, so the consumers have to by default use the cartridges manufactured by the same company. They do so by adding chips to the cartridges, printers can sense these chips containing a key that needs to be matched with that of the printer. As only the company has this key, cartridges manufactured by other companies can't be used. This is how they apply DRM over ink.

This strategy shatters when it faces a chain supply problem when manufacturers can't get chips.

Now what remains is the paper. But how can DRM be put on paper?

Label printers are thermal printers, having printheads consisting of tiny electrical elements that heat special, thermo-reactive paper that turns black when heated. 'Dymo' is one of the manufacturing companies that produce them. Dymo has put RFID readers in its label printers and preventing the printer owners from putting third-party labels through their printers.

The label rolls i.e., the input paper, come with a booby-trap, an RFID-equipped microcontroller that authenticates the company's labels with the printers manufactured by them. Due to this, you cannot use labels that are not of the same manufacturer. Now the consumers are left with no option than buying the labels of Dymo itself. The models that feature this DRM are Dymo 550 and the 5XL.

Enough of problems, tell the solution-

Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act specifies: those who want to outmaneuver such DRMs to the possibility of huge fines, it's either live with it, or junk the printer and buy its substitute. Even with the cost of throwing away your Dymo label printer and replacing it with an alternative, you still save a lot in the long run, by buying labels of your choice !! Simple :)

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