Latest DRM Supports New Business Models

Today, there are several business models for selling digital media online:

Per-download. Under this model, users pay a set fee to download content to their computers’ hard drives for unlimited playback. Users may generally burn content onto removable media and transfer it to portable devices and other PCs, although limitations often apply. (For example, users may be able to burn a song to CD only five times.) Several stores, including MSN Music and Apple’s iTunes Music Store (iTMS), use this model exclusively.

Subscription. Under this model, users have access to all the content on a particular service for a periodic fee. Because so much content is available on such services-the most popular, RealNetworks’ Rhapsody, offers more than 800,000 songs-content owners are wary of the potential for piracy and have not let consumers copy subscription content to removable media or any device beyond the original PC to which it was downloaded.

Rental. Under this model, users may download content to their hard drives but must play this content within a certain time period. The content usually expires after playback and may not be transferred beyond the original PC to which it was downloaded. This model is favored mainly by movie download services, such as CinemaNow and Movielink.