Consumers should know what rights they do and don't have when content they buy comes with digital rights management, or at least that's the conclusion of the All Party Parliamentary Internet Group who have, as previously reported, been giving the whole DRM thing quite a lot of consideration of late.
At the heart of the recommendations made by the Group, reporting back on their previously reported consultation with organisations in favour and against DRM, was the need for better communication in the digital rights management space. The Group's report calls on the Office Of Fair Trading to put in place 'labelling regulations' as soon as possible, forcing content owners to clearly state the limitations any DRM technology they use will have over the products they are selling - you know, "warning, may completely fuck up your computer", that kind of thing.
That labelling, the Group says, should also set out what will happen to DRM protected content should the specific technology used, or the players required to consume the protected content, go out of circulation - ie, to stop consumers being lumbered with a load of protected content that can no longer be played on any commercially available players.
The Group said the aim of any labelling scheme would be to make it "crystal clear" to consumers what rights they had over the content they were buying, which is an ambitious aim, given that nothing is ever particularly "crystal clear" when it comes to DRM (or, indeed, any software).
The report also called for the makers of DRM systems to be made aware of the consequences of using "aggressive copy protection systems" - a reference, of course, to the fallout that followed the use of so called 'rootkit' software by SonyBMG in the US, which was shown to open up user's computers to risk of virus attack. The MPs behind the report said that DRM makers and users should be aware that they face both civil and criminal action if their software systems damage consumers' computers in anyway.
Finally, the Group also called on the Department Of Trade & Industry to look into the prices being charged for legit downloads - pointing out that download prices in the UK are considerably higher than mainland Europe and the US. The report notes that: "This is somewhat at odds with the notion of the 'single market'".
Responses from those anti and pro DRM are sure to be forthcoming this week (all in all, as expected, the report is generally more favourable to the DRM lobby), and we'll report on those responses as we get them.