Copy protection
Copy protection, also known as content
protection, copy prevention, or copy re-
striction, is a technology for preventing the
reproduction
of
copyrighted
software,
movies, music, and other media.[1]
Terminology
Media corporations have always used the
term copy protection, but critics argue that
the term tends to sway the public into identi-
fying with the publishers, who favor restric-
tion technologies,
rather than with the
users.[2] Copy prevention and copy control
may be more neutral terms. "Copy protec-
tion" is a misnomer for some systems, be-
cause any number of copies can be made
from an original and all of these copies will
work, but only in one computer, or only with
one dongle, or only with another device that
cannot be easily copied.
The term is also often related to and/or
confused with the concept of digital rights
management. Digital rights management is a
more general term because it includes all
sorts of management of works, including
copy restrictions. Copy protection may in-
clude measures that are not digital. A more
likely description to this is "technical protec-
tion measures" (TPM), which is often defined
as the use of technological tools in order to
restrict the use and/or access to a work.
Business rationale
In the absence of copy protection, many me-
dia formats are easy to copy in their entirety
using a machine (as opposed to photocopying
each page of a book). This results in a situ-
ation where consumers can easily make cop-
ies of the items to give to their friends, a
practice known as "casual copying". Copy
protection is most commonly found on video-
tapes, DVDs, computer software discs, video
game discs and cartridges, and some audio
CDs.
Companies that choose to publish works
under copy protection do so because they be-
lieve that the added expense of implementing
the copy protection will be offset by even
greater increases in revenue by creating a
greater scarcity of casually copied media.
Opponents of copy protection argue that
people who obtain free copies only u