Check out this paper by Allison Ferch, student in the Masters program in Library and Information Science at San Jose State University. I'm sure she'd appreciate it if you have comments to send them to her.
Digital Rights Management in Higher Education
Digital technologies have had a profound influence on the way academic libraries operate and carry out their missions. Much of the change brought about by the technical revolution of the last two decades has been positive; it has resulted in increased access and collaboration, better searching capabilities, and improvements in workflow. But the digital revolution has also dramatically changed the copyright landscape with the end-result being a much more restrictive copyright culture. Digital rights management (DRM) has contributed significantly to this trend and has consequently been vilified by many in the academic library community.
There are indeed legitimate concerns with the application of DRM technologies, but there are also ways in which DRM can be valuable to academic institutions and the libraries that serve them. It is possible to attain a balance between owners’ and users’ rights if DRM technologies are applied judiciously. Specifically, it is necessary to consider several environmental factors when evaluating or developing a DRM model.
This paper will use a “content ecosystem model” to examine the use of DRM in the higher education environment. The author’s intention is to demonstrate the value of DRM and identify appropriate uses which will help achieve balance between the rights of users and content providers. A discussion of the perils of DRM, as well as what should be done to diminish them, will also be provided.
For the rest of the paper, see http://www.skweezer.net/bloglines/s.aspx/2/www.bloglines.com/blog/AllisonFerch/2006_12
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