At this week's Digital Music Forum, lawyers managing digital rights for Microsoft's Zune music download site and RealNetworks' Rhapsody said that they too believe digital rights management to be more of a headache than an asset.

Earlier this year, the last of the four major music labels offered its respective catalog for digital download to Amazon.com's music service in the MP3 format with no digital copy protections, giving users the ability to freely transfer songs to any portable MP3 music player.

"...Stallman, the widely-recognized founder of the free software movement, argued in front of a Yale Political Union audience of about 125 students that companies should not be allowed to use digital restrictions management to limit the rights of software users.

Geospatial Digital Rights Mangement Reference Model (GeoDRM RM)

In March, 2007 the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC®) membership approved the Geospatial Digital Rights Management Reference Model (GeoDRM RM), an abstract specification for the management of digital rights in the area of geospatial data and services.

Last summer, the BBC tried to sneak "digital rights management" into its high-def digital broadcasts. How can free/open source software co-exist with a plan to put DRM on broadcasts?

With all of the Big Four record labels now jettisoning digital rights management, music fans have every reason to rejoice. But consumer advocates are singing a note of caution, as the music industry experiments with digital-watermarking technology as a DRM substitute.

"One of the largest surveys of music consumers to closely examine the question of Digital Rights Management (DRM) has an important two-part message for the music industry."

"For those of you media junkies out there, you are probably already familiar with the term Digital Rights Management. For those of you who are less familiar, a DRM is any sort of software that is usually attached to media files in order to limit the use of the media file.

"At least 5000 consumers have added their digital signatures to an anti-iPad campaign that's currently petitioning Apple CEO Steve Jobs to remove digital rights management, or DRM, from the device's content..."