Title: Privacy or piracy, why choose? Two solutions to the issues of digital rights management and the protection of personal information

Authors: Thierry Rayna, Ludmila Striukova

Addresses: Internet Centre, Imperial College London, 180 Queen's Gate, London SW7 2AZ, UK. ' Department of Management Science and Innovation, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK

Abstract: The decrease of privacy caused by Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a serious issue, since it slows down the adoption by the consumers of DRM technologies at a time when a very large adoption is needed to win the fight against piracy. This article presents two outlines of solutions that are expected to allow the fight against piracy and the respect of privacy to coexist. The first solution consists of combining first-degree price discrimination and rewarded disclosure in a mutually advantageous trade. The second solution introduces a different type of DRM system that aims to make digital goods rival, thereby leading to anonymous DRM.

Keywords: privacy protection; digital rights management; anonymous DRM; digital goods; price discrimination; public goods; piracy; personal information; rewarded disclosure.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIPM.2008.021138

International Journal of Intellectual Property Management, 2008 Vol.2 No.3, pp.240 - 252

Published online: 05 Nov 2008 *

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