IMPLICATIONS OF DRM TECHNOLOGIES FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

What are some implications of these technologies for access to and use of public-domain information? First of all, direct functionality restrictions will have some obvious implications for access to and use of unprotected, uncopyrightable information. Authentication restrictions can inhibit initial access to the information, allowing access based on the user's device or domain or on possession of a valid subscriber identification. In cases involving collaborative research, this can generate added transaction costs because researchers will have to make sure that everyone with whom they want to collaborate is coming from an authorized device, domain, or subscriber identification. If the DRM restrictions prevent excerpting or extraction of the data, this will hinder research efforts that require extraction and manipulation. If the DRM software or hardware is designed to require proprietary file formats for any data that are extracted, these restrictions may cause other kinds of problems. Papers intended for publication may be subject to limits imposed by the demands of the DRM system. Direct functionality restrictions also raise the risk of loss of access to data, either because a subscription has expired or because the system has invoked self-help functionality to disable itself. Loss of access in turn raises the possibility of damage to other files or programs that may reside on the researcher's system.

Pay-per-use provisions and other click-wrap restrictions also have some important long-term implications for research. First, the pricing of some of these subscriptions can represent a significant cost. In addition, the use of click-wraps to restrict subsequent use and disclosure raises concerns about secrecy and freedom to publish.

It is worth separately highlighting some of the potential effects of DRM technologies on libraries. Libraries will have the headache of managing all of the authentication restrictions. They also will need to worry about loss of access to back issues of journals and databases when subscriptions expire. That is not how their print and microfiche collections have worked, and it is a fairly significant concern for obvious reasons. Libraries also need to be concerned about loss of control over the formats for archival storage, search, and retrieval of data. Search tools have to be able to interact with the file structure of the databases they are designed to search. If the file structures are proprietary for reasons related to the imposition of DRM, then a search engine capable of interacting with that proprietary wrapper may also be considered a proprietary tool. This in turn raises questions about who will be permitted to develop those tools, and what restrictions will be placed on their use. All of these issues are critical to libraries' mission of facilitating access to information by their user communities.