Workbook on Digital Private Papers > Glossary
Glossary - D
DRM - Digital Rights Management
In the context of a digital archive, this refers to the management of all the intellectual property rights (IPRs) associated with a digital archival object, so the repository can ensure that it is carrying out its preservation and access functions in accordance with the restrictions and permissions imposed by legislation or licence. The most important IPR is copyright, which will apply to all of the material in a digital archive, but DRM must also take into account licence agreements, which can override copyright law; these might be licences agreed between the repository and the rights holder, or pre-existing licences which were attached to digital material before it entered the archive (e.g. Creative Commons licences). Effective DRM is facilitated by recording comprehensive rights metadata for every digital object in an archive.
