Hello, I had this idea about reversing the roles of the actors in a typical DRM system, and thinking about where it might lead. I hope the idea will stimulate some discussion: is the idea dead on arrival? Does it have merit? Is it feasible? Is there something like this being built today?
Here goes... The main idea is this: the ordinary consumer (you or me) becomes the "content provider". The content provider (the corporation) becomes "the consumer". Thus, we have now reversed the roles. But what content could the consumer-become-content-provider, the ordinary person, you or me (let's call this actor the "user"), produce? What could be interesting and rare for the corporation but found in abundance from the user? One answer is personal data. Upon request by some corporation, the user decides to accept the request. The user creates a DRM-protected file containing the personal data the user wishes to reveal. When proper DRM technology is being used (the same technology used to protect e.g. movies), the user can be sure that the corporation is not able to * use the personal data after the license period (e.g. 2 hours) has expired * share the personal data with third party companies without permission * do other non-authorized nasty stuff with the personal data Using the "evil" DRM technology a very "good" (good and evil is subjective!) purpose can be achieved: the preservation of the user's privacy. The user gets to decide who can receive and use the information in the first place. The user can disallow use by companies the user considers not to be trustworthy, or who he considers to be immoral, or annoying, or who have the most idiotic advertisements. This kind of application of DRM would probably guarantee privacy of the personal data of each individual person, while at the same time allow companies access to that data with the consent of the user. To me this seems like best of both worlds. The role-reversal idea could help in achieving balance between the concerns of the corporation and the concerns of the consumer, and benefit all parties involved. At the very least, the idea can offer possibilities for stimulating and interesting discussion. (Note: I wrote this originally as a blog article, and it's mostly copy + paste from there with minor editing.. and some attitude removed :-) ) -- GPG 0x6EE92B3E - http://www.lut.fi/~jnurmine/
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