A DRM Solution Based on Social Networks and
Enabling the Idea of Fair Use
Sławomir Grzonkowski
Brian Ensor, Sebastian Ryszard Kruk, Adam Gzella
Stefan Decker and Bill McDaniel
Sławomir Grzonkowski MIT5 Conference, Cambridge, MA, 2007
slawomir.grzonkowski@deri.org
www.deri.org
© Copyright 2005 Digital Enterprise Research
Institute. All rights reserved.

Introduction
We live in two worlds: physical and digital
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We want to respect talented people
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We want to respect customers’ rights
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Fair Use: Customers’ rights
Four factors
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Unsolvable by machines
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DRM: Talented people’s work
Wide scope
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Examples
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DMCA
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Standards
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Scenario
• Alice has purchased an Chemistry ebook that was
recommended by her course tutor
• She travels to school on the bus and may wish to read the
ebook on a pda or other such portable device.
• Later at school, she may want to quickly refer to some of
the diagrams found in the ebook in more detail on a PC
with a large screen.

Scenario
• At home, while writing a report she may wish to cross check
some of her own notes with the ebook again, but this time
using a laptop.
• Still at home, a friend on her community network has asked
her a Chemistry question which she would like to answer in
part by sharing some information from her ebook.
• After the course examinations, the student would like to
transfer the ownership of the ebook to her younger brother.

Half-time Conclusions
We are participants of 2 different
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worlds
DRM systems disable Fair Use
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On-line Social Networks
Social networks
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FOAF
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Access based on social networks
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Example Social Network
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DRM + Social Networks ?
2 requirements
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Extending existing architecture
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Using existing standards
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Architecture
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Other requirements
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How it works?
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How it works?
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How it works?
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How it works?
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How it works?
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How it works?
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How it works?
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How it works?
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How it works?
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How it works?
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How it works?
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How it works?
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Result
Customers
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Ability to legally transfer file
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Recommendations among peers
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Try before buy
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Vendors
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Notification where the file is
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They set how the file can be shared
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Marketing feedback
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Conclusion
Fair use is based on physical availability
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of an item
Critics claim that is imposible to solve the
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problem
Using social networks is an attempt to
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make it more consumer friendly whilst
leaving enough control for content
distributors
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Future work
Continue research in FRM project
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Investigate related aspects of the law
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Target eLearning environments
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Fair Rights Management
users-frm@lists.sf.net
eLITE: http://elite.deri.ie DERI Galway: http://deri.ie
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