Glossary of Terms

This glossary is intended to share a common understanding of words when discussion inside the restricted media community group. It doesn't have the purpose of being the only definition outside of this group. The purpose is to help us spend less time on fighting on the meaning of words and more on the actual issues.

DRM

 

Content Encryption

 

CDM

 

EME

 

Encrypted media, encrypted content

A media which has been encrypted so it is not readable without having access to a key for unlocking it.

Usage control

Usage control requires that in order to conform with a standard, a device must limit or restrict its operation to a subset of its normal or expected behavior. This restriction cannot be overridden by the device's owner or user.

Watermarking

The process of putting markers in the content in a way that is non-destructive for the content. The content can still be copied and used without issues.

obfuscated content

A content which has been encrypted and where the users do not have ownership of the key for decrypting that content.

rights owner

 A person or company which has the rights to exploit the content.

content creator

 A person or company which has created the content. This entity doesn't necessary have the rights anymore or delegated the rights management to a third party.

content consumer

 A person or company which is consuming the content. Examples: someone in a cinema, someone watching online movies, someone buying a DVD, someone reading a book.

content provider

 An entity giving access to the content but do not necessary own the rights on this content.

Compliance and robustness

Implementers of a usage-control based DRM need to do more than comply with a technical specification. Implementers must comply with limits on functionality (so a streaming usage-control system might limit the ability to skip advertisements, or save screenshots, or record a stream). They must also work to lock down their implementation so that the user cannot enable new functionality themselves. Preventing implementers from adding functionality is "compliance"; preventing users from restoring functionality is "robustness". Usage control DRM generally have separate C&R bodies which police these aspects, usually through contractual agreements, enforced with hook IP.