p2ptunesapeer-to-peerdigitalrightsmanagementsystem.docVIP

P2PTunes: A Peer-to-Peer Digital Rights Management System Ramya Venkataramu Hewlett-Packard Company 10955 Tantau Avenue Cupertino, California Mark Stamp Department of Computer Science San Jose State University San Jose, California Abstract Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology is used to control access to copyrighted digital content. Apple employs a DRM system known as Fairplay in its iTunes online music store. Users communicate with the centralized iTunes server to download, purchase, play, and preview digital content. The iTunes music store has the potential disadvantage of a bandwidth bottleneck at the centralized server. Furthermore, this bandwidth bottleneck problem will escalate with increasing popularity of online music and other digital media, such as video. In this paper we analyze the Fairplay DRM system. Then we consider a modified architecture that can be employed over existing peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Our new system, P2PTunes, is designed to provide the benefits of a decentralized P2P network while providing DRM content protection that is at least as strong as that found in Fairplay. Keywords: Digital rights management, DRM, peer-to-peer networks, P2P, iTunes, Fairplay, P2PTunes Introduction The success of the Apple iPod and associated iTunes music store has made Apple, Inc., a dominant company in both the online media distribution business and the digital media player market (Chandak 2005). The iPod is a portable digital media player which supports the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG-1) Audio Layer-3 (MP3), Waveform Audio (WAV), and Audible formats (Apple 2006). The iTunes online store allows users to purchase digital media content. A proprietary software application—also known as iTunes—is used to connect to the iTunes online store to download digital content. The iTunes software is used to manage play lists among computers and iPods, and to play digital content on Windows computers, Macintosh com