Karen Coyle spoke about DRM last week as part of the Library of Congress Luminary Lectures series. Entitled The Technology of Copyright: Digital Rights Management, the presentation covered the following:

Without technological controls, digital documents are easily copied. Publishers of texts, music and video are looking to digital rights management (DRM) technology to allow them to distribute and sell their goods in digital format with a limited risk of piracy. DRM technologies in development today range from simple password control to elaborate models of trusted systems. They all exercise some control over the use of materials they protect. What will it mean to writers, publishers, readers and libraries to work with documents that are protected by technology? How does DRM interact with copyright law? Can we live with it? Can we survive without it?

The video of Coyle's 1 hour, 27 minute talk is available here (requires the RealOne Player, and dagnabbit, that might just tank this post's claim to DRM free status...). [Via UMUC's Digital Copyrights List]

Magnatune is a digital music download service on the shareware model: if you like what you hear, and/or want to download something more than a 128kb MP3, you buy it. See the Plan for the details, including the Creative Commons licensing. Magnatune says 50% of the purchase price goes to the artist, and that it's "not evil." [Via the Screen Savers]