DRM as an Interlocking Challenge for Different Scientific Disciplines: Introduction

Abstract

There is music on the Internet! – a realization that was news five years ago is common knowledge today. In fact, there is much more music – and indeed other “content” than rights holders and the “content industries” would like to think. It is the special feature of the Internet and digital technologies that copies can be easily produced and distributed to millions of recipients at very low costs. New fast and efficient channels for the distribution of music, of videos, pictures and books, present a unique opportunity to open new markets with expectations of large revenues: a gold-rush in the internet age.