Compliance and Robustness

Compliance and Robustness, sometimes abbreviated as C&R, refers to the legal structure or regime underlying a Digital Rights Management (DRM) system. In many cases, the C&R regime for a given DRM is provided by the same company that sells the DRM solution. For example, RealNetworks Helix or Microsoft Windows Media DRM.

However, for standardised DRM systems, it is fairly common for a separate body to be established to run the C&R regime.

Elements

C&R Body

The legal entity that establishes and maintains the regime. Usually this will be a joint venture or forum with representation from multiple companies, structured in such as way as to avoid accusations of antitrust violations. The nature of the business is that such bodies will generally be composed of manufacturers and content owners, with little or no direct representation from consumer advocates.

Trust Model

The C&R body is responsible for ensuring a chain of trust, such that the original content provider is sufficiently satisfied that their content will remain adequately secure throughout all future links in the chain. This may include export of content from one DRM system to another.