Digital rights management (DRM) techniques attempt to provide copyright protection for intellectual property such as copyrighted works. DRM represents an access control technology used to control the distribution and use of electronic content. The purpose of DRM is to prevent the unauthorized use, modification, and distribution of copyrighted works such as intellectual property (IP) throughout its entire lifecycle. Furthermore, DRM allows organizations or individuals to restrict access, editing, copying, and printing of their digital assets. In addition, DRM methods allow movie studios and music producers to prevent pirated content from being viewed on a device that is not associated with a legitimate purchase of that content. DRM tools provide mechanisms to control how data is used.
Digital rights management (DRM) is applicable in the following areas:
- Copyright infringements
- License keys of software products
- Adobe Acrobat PDF document restriction
- Microsoft Office document restrictions
- Prevent fraudulent payments