The good, the bad, and the ugly: what might change if we had good DRM

Various vendors claim to have solved the online piracy problem in manners that can enable the safe sale of information to Web users. The technologies they sell include watermarking, hardware key "dongles", encryption and monitoring. The major place people worry about digital rights management's (DRM) impact is with existing Web sites that provide free information. Whatever benefits it might bring, DRM software's downside will undoubtedly include the collection of large amounts of user data that could prove valuable to marketers, snoopers, and others besides those who sell online content.