Using digital rights management to protect content

You can control the use of your encoded content by protecting it with digital rights management (DRM) technology. Content is encoded, encrypted with a key, and then a license is required by users to play the content. This license contains the key to unlock the content and the rights that govern its use. For example, the license determines the number of times a user can play the content or when the license expires.

Important

• Licenses are issued by a third-party license provider, so you must set up an account with one before you can protect your content.

Steps involved in using DRM

The basic steps in using DRM are as follows:

1. Set up an encoding session.
2. Set up an account with a license provider (if you haven't already done so) and create a DRM profile.
3. In the session, identify the DRM profile to use with the content.
4. Encode and distribute your content, either by streaming it or providing files for download.
5. When users play the protected content, the player acquires a license, which is issued by the license provider you chose. The user can then play the content according to the rights that are included in the license.

   For users to play protected content, they must use a player that supports Microsoft DRM technology. For a list of players, see the Microsoft Web site.

Reusing DRM profiles

After you have created a DRM profile, you can reuse it in future sessions. You can also export the profile so that you can import it for use on a different encoding computer. Similarly, you can import a DRM profile from another computer. To ensure security, DRM profiles are maintained on a per-user basis. This prevents others from viewing, editing, and using DRM profiles that you create. DRM profiles have a .drm file name extension.

Related topics

• Customizing a session
• Setting up an account with a license provider
• To protect your content with DRM