ian kerr
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C O N T A C T

Dr. Ian Kerr holds the University of Ottawa Logo Canada Research Chair in Ethics, Law and Technology at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. He also holds cross- appointments to the Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Philosophy.

 e-mail icon iankerr(at)uottawa(dot)ca

 telephone icon telephone:
  613-562-5800 ext. 3281

 fax icon fax:
  613-562-5124

 mail box icon post:
  57 Louis Pasteur St.
  P.O. Box 450, Stn.A
  Ottawa, Ontario
  K1N 6N5


K E R R P O D

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I D  T R A I L

ID Trail ThumbOn the Identity Trail
understanding the importance and impact of anonymity and authentication in a networked society

M Y  P O D C A S T S

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L O G I N

S E A R C H


To Observe and Protect?

I begin the chapter by distinguishing between technological protection measures (TPMs) and digital rights managements (DRM) systems, examining how such technologies are used to enforce corporate copyright policies and express copyright permissions imposed by a DRM through a registration process that requires purchasers to hand over personal information.  Given DRM’s extraordinary surveillance capabilities, I argue that anti-circumvention laws must contain express provisions and penalties to protect citizens from organizations using TPMs and DRMs to pirate personal information, engage in excessive monitoring, and preclude people from exercising their right to access and control personal information. In determining an appropriate balance, I introduce three public policy considerations: (i) the anonymity Principle; (ii) individual access; and (iii) freedom from contract.  I conclude that these three recommendations would provide the sort of counter-measures necessary to offset the new powers and protections afforded to TPM and DRM.

A preprint of this article is available for download pdf here 163.50 Kb ©  2007. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CITE AS


"To OBSERVE AND PROTECT? How Digital Rights Management Systems Threaten Privacy and What Policy Makers Should Do About It", forthcoming in Intellectual Property and Information Wealth: Copyright and Related Rights (vol. 1), Edited by Peter Yu, Praeger Publishers, 2007.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 
Creative Commons License
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.