Towards a software architecture for DRM

The domain of digital rights management (DRM) is currently lacking a generic architecture that supports interoperability and reuse of specific DRM technologies. This lack of architectural support is a serious drawback in light of the rapid evolution of a complex domain like DRM. It is highly unlikely that a single DRM technology or standard will be able to support the diversity of devices, users, platforms, and media, or the wide variety of system requirements concerning security, flexibility, and efficiency. This paper analyses state-of-the-art DRM technologies and extracts from them high level usage scenarios according to content consumers, producers, and publishers. In addition, the key services are identified both from a functional and security perspective. Identifying key DRM services and locating them in an overall structure brings us one step closer to a software architecture for DRM. Having available a software architecture should help the DRM community in reasoning about DRM systems, and in achieving reuse and interoperability of multiple domain-specific DRM technologies and standards.