Content Protection
:
Vural Ünlü
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Content Protection
:
Herbert Utz Verlag
:
9783831604623
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1
:
CHF 38.10
:
:
Sonstiges
:
English
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259
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DRM
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PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
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PDF
The fact that digital data can be easily and cheaply copied, reproduced and disseminated without information loss threatens the means of existence of extensive sectors of the media industry. This is especially true in the case of the music segment, where declining sales are to a significant extent attributable to copyright infringements. The content industry is resorting to techno-legal protection measures to prevent the uncontrolled redistribution of content, so as to safeguard sustained sources of direct revenue. Therefore, no more the"royal" content itself, but the enforcement of the associated rights will be a key element in the business strategy of media enterprises. Digital rights management solutions promise to make an important contribution in this respect.
This work has the objective to assist media managers in determining an optimal level of content protection, taking into account the cost-benefit trade-offs of various protection strategies and the probable reaction of the legislator. Furthermore, the aim is to provide pointers for the subsequent techno-legal implementation of the optimal level of protection. For this reason, Vural Ünlü analyses the challenges of content in the digital era from multidisciplinary perspectives, including technology, economics and public policy and normatively evaluates solutions.
4 Economic perspective
(S. 123-124)
Based on what has been written so far, it may seem that technological protection measures are a panacea for protecting content. However, it should be kept in mind that complete protection is neither technically feasible nor economically sound. It is true that technological protection measures have the potential to reprivatise media products through the exclusion of free riders. At the same time, such measures lead to higher costs along the whole value chain, possibly resulting in a decline in utility on the consumer side [ÜnHe03].
Depending upon the level of security desired by media companies, a DRMS involves investments for integrating the system into the system environment, for the training of staff and for the alignment of business processes. As a result, the trade-off between the costs and benefits of varying degrees of content protection gives rise to a need to identify an appropriate level of technology-based protection. The associated costs cannot yet be recovered by additional sources of revenue from digital business models, and the potential generation of micropayment revenues faces the problem of prohibitive transaction costs, particularly billing expenses [Schm01,445]. Past approaches to an adequate level of security have focused primarily on technical aspects [Oppl97,Bhim96,Sher00,Finn98], while neglecting the economic dimension. There has been little research in the area of determining the optimal level of information security and the corresponding level of investment.
The problem of developing an appropriate, useful approach for choosing the optimal level of investment in multimedia security has yet to be addressed by scientists and practitioners. In the future, this class of investment will constitute an increasing proportion of the total investments made by media enterprises. In this chapter, the cost-benefit problem will be illuminated by means of three different methods: In Section 4.1, a simple portfolio-based approach based on media asset value maps is developed in order to assess the optimal level of protection heuristically. This section is based on a contribution for
Information Management
by
Ünlü
, Rauchfuß, Hess and Faecks [ÜRHF04b].
Although this approach is intuitively understandable, it has major conceptual drawbacks, such as the neglect of cost considerations. Section 4.2 will address these shortcomings through the consideration of classical finance-based concepts, focusing on Net Present Value (NPV) and Value at Risk (VAR) methods. This approach attempts to quantify the costs of potential attacks and the probability of their occurrence, balanced against the costs of preventing attacks and operating extra security measures. Based on the monetary relationship between risk and benefit, it is possible to decide whether it is worthwhile to protect content against acts of piracy.
However, in determining the optimal level of security, the reliability of decisions based solely on financial concepts is limited, since it is difficult to measure the benefits associated with higher security levels and to quantify the risk in relationship to the security level. Therefore, in order to address this issue, Section 4.3, which constitutes the major part of this chapter, proposes a gametheoretic model. Rather than focusing on a concrete business context, the model attempts to analyse the economics of a DRMS on a more abstract level.
Acknowledgments
5
Overview of contents
6
Table of contents
7
List of figures
10
List of tables
13
List of abbreviations
14
List of variables
17
1 Introduction
18
1.1 Scope of the problem
18
1.2 Refinement of problem structures and objectives
20
1.3 Methodology
27
1.3.1 Normative model-based approach
27
1.3.2 Economic perspective – Game-theoretic industrial organisation model
30
1.3.3 Public policy perspective - Law and economics
33
1.3.4 Technical perspective - Reference modelling
35
1.4 Related literature
37
1.5 Thesis outline
39
2 Foundations
43
2.1 Terminology
43
2.2 Stakeholder analysis
48
