Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a set of technologies, policies, and procedures used to control access to and usage of digital content.
The primary purpose of DRM is to protect the intellectual property rights of content creators and distributors by regulating how digital content is used and shared. These tools are applied to various types of digital media, including music, photos, videos, e-books, software, and other digital files
Many brands leverage third-party vendors like influencers, photographers, and graphic designers, to assist in developing visual brand assets at scale. And when you need to juggle thousands – if not millions – of digital assets with different usage rights, it’s critical to have a strong DRM system in place.
Let’s explore DRM, rights managed photography, information rights management, key benefits and use cases, and tools to deploy an effective strategy.
Benefits of Digital Rights Management
Digital rights management services not only save time, but also save an organization from significant liability or financial loss. Here’s a few key benefits of DRM technology:
Data Privacy and Protection
A DRM system is the confidentiality keeper of a brand. It uses metadata fields to ensure sensitive and personal information remains private, such as employee data or customer documents.
Ownership Protection
Digital rights management technology safeguards intellectual property rights by preventing unauthorized copying, editing, printing and sharing of digital content, ensuring the preservation of ownership.
Access Control
DRM solutions help a brand easily control and track access to files, adding restrictions and permissions to users as necessary.
Revenue Retention Photo Credit
Content creation requires lots of time and money. Properly managing and securing digital assets enables creators and holders to consistently generate revenue from their content, maximizing ROI.
Copyright Education
DRMs create learning opportunities, helping both creators and customers understand the importance of abiding by copyright law and policies, and how to avoid copyright infringement.
Workflow Acceleration
When teams are clear on the guidelines around digital content, it enables them to quickly and confidently identify which assets to use, without breaking usage rights or content agreements.
How DRM Works
Like any piece of intellectual property (music, photography, software, or a drug formula), the end user doesn’t own the underlying IP. When you buy a copy of Microsoft Office, you are buying a license to use the software on your computer. You can’t resell the software nor use it on multiple computers.
With rights managed photography, you are almost always buying a license to use the image in a specific way – not the underlying copyright. The photographer will own the IP. This is an important strategy for brands to implement, as typical stock photography can be overexposed, leading to the same visual asset representing multiple organizations and brands
Information Rights Management (IRM)
The purpose of DRM is to protect copyrighted material (like images, PDFs, music), while IRM helps protect the security of sensitive documents. Hospitals, for example, carry a plethora of confidential information, like patient records, that must maintain compliance with HIPAA regulations. When IRM is applied, it prevents patient records from falling into unauthorized hands, protecting individual privacy, as well as the accessibility of the data.
Permissions
When regulating user access within a DRM, an IRM server can authenticate permissions established for certain documents. Access control levels can vary (read-only, editing capabilities, full control), meaning only certain users are able to view, print, forward, screenshot, or copy documents.
Watermarks
A digital watermark is an invisible ID assigned to an asset that follows the file to track unauthorized online use. The watermark indicates whether a file has been manipulated, copied, or transformed from one format to another, while tracking IP addresses.
Digital Rights Management Use Cases
Every organization has some level of digital media that needs to be collected, stored and shared with stakeholders and customers. Keeping these files secure can be a make or break to organizational security, reputation, and revenue.
For brands with a large volume of visual assets, Rights Managed (RM) Photography is a must. RM images give the licensee the ability to use a specific image in a specific way for a specific period of time.
Healthcare
As mentioned previously, DRM technology is imperative for healthcare providers. These tools play a critical role in protecting sensitive information like patient records and hospital data, to ensure documents don’t get into the wrong hands.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity organizations hold millions of sensitive customer information across personal devices and the cloud, that must be stored securely and tracked effectively. Digital rights management ensures compliance with data protection regulations.
Digital Media and Entertainment
TV shows, movies, and books are prime examples of intellectual property. DRM and IRM tools enable things like watermarking to indicate if a movie or song is illegally streamed and uploaded to an external platform. Without these tools, content can be shared far and wide, disrupting revenue streams.
Ready to ensure your rights management strategy helps grow your brand? Get started today with PhotoShelter.