Digital rights management (DRM) is a generic term that refers to means by which publishers of digital media restrict the open proliferation of their media products (music files, ebooks, online video) in order to protect copyright holders and ensure that piracy doesn’t undermine the income creative people can derive from their work.

It is an imperfect system, which has tended to err on the side of caution, restricting the ability of consumers to copy and share copyrighted material, in order to prevent the “threshold moment” after which such proliferation cannot be stopped, and the people who create digital content will be unable to make a living from their work in the digital environment.

What experiences, suggestions, critiques, do you have regarding DRM and the potential ethical and commercial ramifications of emerging trends?

As a writer and reporter myself, I feel it’s important to balance the free flow of information with the right of those who produce content to make an honest living. I have not seen a standard for DRM that is ideal for me, for my tastes, but I think we need to find ways to be more flexible about how content is shared and how it is compensated.

Are there ways to use temporary no-charge digital distribution, where files can be copied, perhaps only in part, but where all files in the no-charge chain are promotional, and will expire if not paid for by a certain date?

I’m just updating this discussion with my comments from the previous site. But, I’m also curious to know if anyone’s thinking about whether the open development platform for Apple’s devices is a new kind of openness, matching open source principles with the power of a corporate innovation engine, or whether the uniform distribution system for those ideas makes it a threat to the open web.

Debate by Dave Cullen and others on DRM, at OpenSalon: the piece explores an alternative e-reading platform to rival the Amazon Kindle, the possibilities of loosening sharing and DRM controls and the need to ensure authors receive fair compensation for their work…