DRM Wars: The Next Generation

Technologists, lawyers, and politicians have been fighting for years over digital rights/restrictions management (DRM) technology. This talk will survey the current state of the DRM wars and predict where they will go. How will the industry's techno-legal strategies evolve? What is the political climate for extension or reform of the DMCA and other laws and regulations? What will be the fallout from the Sony rootkit incident? Which advocacy groups are effective change agents and which are not? How will future DRM wars affect researchers, entrepreneurs, open source developers, and tinkerers? How can technologists affect the DRM wars? The talk will address these and other questions.

Edward W. Felten is a Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and is the founding director of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy. His research interests include computer security and privacy, especially relating to media and consumer products, and technology law and policy. He writes a blog on these topics at freedom-to-tinker.com.