DRMs, fair use and users' experience of sharing music

Abstract

There is a mismatch between the law relating to fair use, personal use and copying; the central thrust of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and users' behavior relating to the listening and sharing of music. This paper reports on the different copyright regimes in the United States and Australia. It describes some of the current DRM systems. Against this background, the paper draws on a qualitative study to explore Australian users' experience of listening to and sharing music. A design for a good DRM has to take into account the schism between the copyright regimes and users' sharing behavior.