A DRM framework towards preventing digital piracy

Abstract

Digital piracy is a major challenge faced by content publishers and software vendors today. This paper presents a Digital Rights Management (DRM) framework to secure digital content and software applications. The DRM framework uses cryptographic techniques and supports protection of digital content viz., PDF, image and audio files by enforcing user rights such as view, copy, play or print as applicable. The framework is extendable to safeguard libraries of software applications on multiple operating systems. The design offers protection to various file formats with a DRM license that can be upgraded for additional rights or be renewed to get an extended validity. The DRM framework also accommodates offline use of protected content by a one-time (initial) setup and a user license stored locally. Finally, the paper analyzes the design for DRM's crucial requirements like security, flexibility, efficiency and interoperability.