DRM technology adds value to digital content

Following the successful application of DRM technology in e-books, e-newspapers and e-magazines have also gradually attracted the attention of the industry. The protection of e-books, e-newspapers, and e-magazines through DRM technology has brought new value to such digital content.

I. Introduction

With the rapid development of the Internet and digital technologies, digital content such as e-books, e-newspapers, music, movies, pictures, games, and software are increasingly being traded and distributed online. However, as digital content is easily copied, modified and disseminated, digital content disseminated on the Internet has a lot of piracy and infringement issues, and the interests of owners of digital content have been lost, which has dampened their enthusiasm for using the Internet to expand their business. Copyright protection of digital content is increasingly important.

Since 2000, digital copyright protection technology (abbreviated as DRM technology) has attracted more and more attention from people. More and more digital content is protected by DRM technology, which realizes value-added services for digital content, such as e-books through DRM systems. Selling online, or selling e-books to DRM-protected digital libraries, allows publishers to generate more revenue by selling e-books while publishing paper books.

The impact of DRM technology on the publishing industry has become increasingly apparent. DRM technology has played an important role in the sales of digital content such as e-books, e-newspapers, and e-magazines.

Second, the development of eBook digital content

On March 14, 2000, Stephen King, a best-selling novelist in the United States, published a novel entitled "Riding the Bullet." This novel is the first book that only published eBooks without a printed version and was published by the publisher Simon & Schuster. The first day of the publication of this novel was downloaded 400,000 copies! The eBook “Riding the Bullet” sold for US$2.5. By the beginning of April 2000, Stephen King himself claimed to have earned $450,000!

The "Riding the Bullet" incident shows that with DRM technology, e-books can be retailed through the Internet, which has also greatly promoted the development of e-books in the United States. Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other e-commerce sites selling paper books have opened electronic. Book sales channel, followed by overdrive, Lightning Source, netLibrary and other companies providing e-book technology services.

Since 2000, the application of DRM technology in the field of e-books has gradually matured, and the market for e-books has also grown steadily and continuously. According to the incomplete statistical data of the Open eBook Forum of the Open e-book Forum organization (some publishers participate in the statistics of data), compared with 2002, the number of e-book sales increased from 782,276 in 2002 to 03. In 1,336,626 volumes, an increase of 71%, the corresponding sales revenue increased by 27%, which also shows that the US eBook's retail prices are declining. Figure 1 shows the number of e-books sold in the United States by some publishers in recent years (number of books downloaded). Figure 2 shows the statistics of e-book sales by some US publishers in recent years. These data were collected by OebF from dozens of eBook publishers. Although they did not cover the sales data of all eBooks and did not include the data sold to libraries, the companies providing the data included the most important eBook publishers in the United States. Has represented the development trend of eBook.

OebF conducted another survey at the end of 2003. The survey raised several questions that were answered by publishers. The results are shown in Table 1. From this table, it can be seen that publishers’ investment in eBooks in 2004 and expected income are also generally increasing. For example, 83% of publishing communities publish more e-books, and 91% of publishers believe that the number of e-books sold in 2004 Will grow.

Will the number of eBooks published by Your Press in 2004 increase or decrease? 83% 4% 13%
Does your publisher think that the number of eBook sales in 2004 will increase or decrease? 91% 0% 9%

In 2004, your publishing society will not increase market expenses to promote the publication and sale of eBooks. 50% 4% 46%

If the eBook is published first, then the publication of a paper book will increase the sales of eBook? 59% 8% 33%

The development of the eBook in China in recent years has also shown a gratifying picture. On April 26, 2000, the official release of Founder Apabi system. The Founder Apabi solution restores the e-book process to a paper-based process. With Founder Apabi products, publishers can easily produce and publish e-books and protect the copyright of authors and publishers; online bookstores can easily create online e-books. The sales system; readers can buy books through the online e-book store and read e-books on the local machine, but the e-books purchased can only be disseminated through authorization; readers can also borrow books and return books in the digital library.

In order to protect the eBook through the DRM system, in order to protect the legitimate interests of various roles in the circumstance of the eBook, the DRM technology should at least reflect the eBook's copyright control in four aspects:

(1) DRM technology ensures that the eBook cannot be copied, the eBook is bound to the reading machine, and the computer file is copied to another machine and cannot be read.

(2) DRM technology must ensure that eBooks cannot be tampered with, including eBook content, eBook pricing, publisher name, and other information.

(3) DRM technology ensures that the eBook can count. Countability includes two meanings: first, readers buy eBooks, and buy by “beginnings”; Internet e-book stations sell books, and sell by “beginnings”; digital libraries buy eBooks by “this”, and one is borrowed locally. reader. Second, publishers can know that online bookstores have sold several books and libraries have bought several books. This statistical data is guaranteed by technology to be fair and unchangeable.

(3) DRM technology can control the secondary propagation of eBooks. For example, a book purchased by a library can be lent to the reader. The reader's eBook cannot continue reading after the loan period. Currently, only the eBook DRM technology of Founder Apabi and some foreigners achieve copyright protection of the eBook in these four aspects. . Of course, to achieve these aspects of protection, you need to use symmetrical encryption technology, asymmetric encryption technology (PKI), data communication security technology, data encryption of format files, and XML and other technologies, based on these technologies, Form a complete eBook DRM system.

The Founder Apabi system brings DRM technology protection to the publishing of eBooks. Publishers can confidently publish eBooks. In recent years, the eBook industry in China has maintained sustained and stable development. There are more than 300 publishers who publish genuine e-books through DRM technology, and the number of genuine e-books published has kept growing at a rate of over 200%. This year's genuine Chinese e-books will exceed 100,000 volumes.

Third, from e-books to newsletters

With the increasing popularity of e-books, publishers have also obtained certain benefits through e-books. In 2003, the retail sales revenue of U.S. e-books exceeded 10 million U.S. dollars. At the same time, some newspapers and magazines also began to pay attention and introduced the original electronic version of the original version. Since 2002, readers can subscribe or purchase more and more original electronic newsletters or e-magazines online, such as "The New York Times", "USA Today", "Sports Weekly", "Harvard Business Review", " PC Magagine, BusinessWeek, and so on.

The original version of the electronic newsletter brought new methods of distribution to the newspapers, resulting in new service models and features:

The e-newsletter provides readers with subscriptions for e-newspapers. Users can search for newspapers, or they can browse the original layout.

Providing fee-based e-newsletters (such as overseas) for specific user groups to achieve profit in multiple channels.

The issuance of newsletters has expanded the distribution area of ​​newspapers and increased their influence.

Make up for the lack of circulation, reduce paper costs and distribution costs.

Providing diverse, personalized advertising services for specific user groups can expand from print advertising services to multimedia advertising services. The link of multimedia advertising information in the e-newsletter enabled the newspaper to obtain substantial advertising revenue.

The Founder Apabi newsletter distribution system is based on the proven solution of the Founder Apabi eBook. It provides the newsletter published by the newspaper company to subscribers and ensures the timely issuance of the newsletter, saving logistics and printing costs. And to provide readers with high-quality subscription services and convenient, friendly reading tools, the program covers the management of electronic news release system, electronic news subscription services, readers download browse and other functions, see Figure 3, production and publishing software, transaction processing Software, security distribution, and reading software are all part of the program.

Fourth, summary

After years of development, eBook has gradually become a mature industry, and DRM technology also brings value to eBooks for content and services. eBook not only creates new revenue for publishers, but also promotes to some extent In the sales of paper books, it is believed that for a long period of time, paper books and eBooks will coexist and promote each other. With the successful application of DRM technology in the eBook field, newsletters and e-magazines will also be popularized and popularized in the near future, becoming a new revenue growth point for newspapers.




[Expert Profile]

Tang Zhi, Ph.D., Researcher. In 1995, he received a doctorate in computer application from Peking University Computer Institute. In 2001, he won the first prize of the 8th Shinsaw Shinobu. He is currently a researcher at the Institute of Computer Science and Technology of Peking University and a technical director of the Network Communications Division of Peking University Founder Electronics Co., Ltd. From October 1991 to early 2000, he hosted the research and development of Founder Feiteng typesetting system. Since 2000, he has mainly studied digital copyright protection technologies and e-book solutions based on digital copyright protection technologies.

Source: Peking Founder Electronics Co., Ltd.