Warning -- This Product Contains DRM

Shouldn't a vendor be required to inform customers that a product they're about to buy contains technology designed to disable it? Currently in the U.S., the only laws pertaining to Digital Rights Management (DRM) prohibit attempts to tamper with it. No constraints or responsibilities are placed on copyright holders for making sure their DRM doesn't unfairly deprive legitimate customers of their rights. In o

Shouldn't a vendor be required to inform customers that a product they're about to buy contains technology designed to disable it? Currently in the U.S., the only laws pertaining to Digital Rights Management (DRM) prohibit attempts to tamper with it. No constraints or responsibilities are placed on copyright holders for making sure their DRM doesn't unfairly deprive legitimate customers of their rights. In other words, in the DRM world, customers have no rights.

Some readers think it's time the books were balanced a little bit. In our recent discussions about some of the all-time worst examples of anti-piracy technology gone bad, one reader pointed out that in many such instances, the nature or even the existence of the DRM was concealed by the vendor. "In each case subterfuge was used to get the customer to buy/use the product," the reader wrote. "To my mind there should be a DRM labeling law. I have the right to know pre-purchase that DRM is used on a CD, what kind it is, how it limits my use of the product, and whether -- absent the CD usage, of course -- I can remove the rootkit and how difficult it is to do."

Such a warning label, the reader suggested, might read something like "This CD utilizes the DRM Method called 'YouCanDoSquat' which may limit your intended use of this product. Ask your retailer for a detailed information sheet on the YouCanDoSquat DRM method or visit YouCanDoSquat.com." Surely no vendor would object to making available the basic information about what its DRM does and how it will treat the information it collects through it.

Well, maybe a few would object. But there are some good reasons to think now would be a good time to push for something like this. After all, 2007 has been a year in which DRM has largely been in retreat. In the music business, the movement toward DRMless downloads that began with the April announcement of EMI's agreement to provide DRM-free tunes on iTunes appears to be gaining an irresistible momentum. And, while much further back on the learning curve, the developers of the rival Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats for HD movies have seen all their costly DRM schemes cracked even before they are put to use. Even the DRM stalwarts of the software industry have pulled back a bit, with Microsoft's recent announcement that it will modify the harshest forms of Vista's "reduced functionality" mode and Adobe's decision earlier this year not to require corporate customers for Acrobat to implement a license tracking scheme.