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Almost since the dawn of the internet, media companies have worked hard to keep copies of their movies and music from being freely distributed through peer to peer networks. Obviously, they have been unsuccessful, as almost every movie out in the theaters today can be downloaded through BitTorrent, and there are many tools available on the internet that let you bypass these attempts at “managing” your digital rights. People who wish to attain illicit copies of multimedia need simply search on their local torrent searching website, and can immediately get a download for it, whether it be music or videos.

Unfortunately for those of us who do actually spend money on our music and movies these days, Digital Rights management gets in the way of our daily lives. The media which we have actually sat down and paid for only makes our lives more difficult, as even though it is legal, the restrictions still generally prevent us from playing legal music on more than one device, or on more than one computer.

However, in a market economy, where companies’ survival depend on the will of the people who buy their products, the consumer’s desires, when made well known, can hold sway. Music has largely left behind DRM, and songs bought on iTunes can be played on as many devices as you wish. There is no real tangible barrier preventing companies from altogether ditching DRM forever, and if they decide to, they can get rid of it as soon as tomorrow. However, to ensure that copyright laws are still enforced (yes, they are enforced), most media companies still resist the tug toward complete freedom from Digital Rights Management.

Progress is being made, and some services are slowly moving toward a completely DRM free future, but that is still some time off in the future. We can sit and hope that the day will come soon.