{ "model": { "rank": 8340, "code": "thing-q192532", "model_id": "vr.tr.digital-rights-management", "name": "digital rights management", "purpose": "Let an agent explain digital rights management and its forms, relay technologies, laws and debates from technology, legal and consumer sources with attribution, describe the specific practices the registry aliases name, and distinguish DRM from copyright itself, from copy protection in general and from access control, without providing circumvention guidance.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.STA", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q192532/", "tier": 2, "score": 51, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "online pass", "always-online DRM", "controlled digital lending", "Tivoization", "regional lockout", "Information Rights Management", "television encryption" ], "aliasCount": 7, "merged": 7, "knownIn": 51, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q192532", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q192532", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T14:03:52Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q192532", "registryId": "vr.tr.digital-rights-management", "name": "digital rights management", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.STA" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q192532/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.digital-rights-management", "name": "digital rights management", "purpose": "Let an agent explain digital rights management and its forms, relay technologies, laws and debates from technology, legal and consumer sources with attribution, describe the specific practices the registry aliases name, and distinguish DRM from copyright itself, from copy protection in general and from access control, without providing circumvention guidance.", "definition": "Technologies and licensing arrangements that control the use, copying and distribution of digital content and devices, including always-online requirements, online passes for games, regional lockout of media and consoles, Tivoization that uses hardware restrictions to block modified software, enterprise Information Rights Management for documents and controlled digital lending by libraries; DRM is defended as protecting rights holders and criticised for restricting users, and circumvention is regulated by law.", "what_it_is_for": "Controlling use of digital content.", "affordances": [ "explain forms", "relay technologies and laws", "describe debates with attribution", "decline circumvention guidance" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Technical and legal", "Rights holder control", "Consumer restrictions", "Contested" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; licences, encryption and locked devices.", "visual_identification": [ "Control of digital content use", "Always-online DRM, online pass, regional lockout, Tivoization, Information Rights Management, controlled digital lending", "Copyright is the legal right; copy protection is one technique; access control is a general security concept" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "DMCA anti-circumvention", "typical_range": "1998", "unit": "year", "note": "US" }, { "quantity": "EU Copyright Directive", "typical_range": "2001", "unit": "year", "note": "article 6" }, { "quantity": "DVD region codes", "typical_range": "6 plus special", "unit": "count", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "encryption and licensing DRM for media", "always-online and online pass DRM in games", "regional lockout", "hardware restrictions such as Tivoization", "enterprise Information Rights Management", "library controlled digital lending as a contested DRM-based practice" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "copy protection", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "access restriction", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "rights management", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is protected by", "target": "anti-circumvention law", "why": "such as the DMCA" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "DMCA and EU Copyright Directive anti-circumvention rules", "Consumer protection rules on DRM disclosure", "Licences such as the GPLv3 addressing Tivoization" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Agents providing circumvention guidance", "Loss of access when DRM servers shut down", "Partisan framing of DRM debates" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What DRM is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is digital rights management, and how does it differ from copyright, copy protection and access control?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about the concept, a practice, law or circumvention, which the model does not assist?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "forms", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms.", "findings": [ { "id": "forms-finding", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are always-online DRM, online passes, regional lockout, Tivoization, Information Rights Management and controlled digital lending?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific form?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Law.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "circumvention", "name": "Circumvention", "description": "Anti-circumvention law.", "findings": [ { "id": "circumvention-finding", "name": "Circumvention", "description": "Circumvention.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do the DMCA, the EU directive and other laws say about circumvention and exemptions, at a general level?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consumer", "name": "Consumer", "description": "Consumer rules.", "findings": [ { "id": "consumer-finding", "name": "Consumer", "description": "Consumer.", "questions": [ { "text": "What consumer protections apply to DRM, and what happens when services shut down?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "debate", "name": "Debate", "description": "Debates.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "positions", "name": "Positions", "description": "Positions.", "findings": [ { "id": "positions-finding", "name": "Positions", "description": "Positions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do rights holders, consumer advocates, libraries and free software advocates argue about DRM, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "lending", "name": "Lending", "description": "Controlled digital lending.", "findings": [ { "id": "lending-finding", "name": "Lending", "description": "Lending.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is controlled digital lending, and how have courts ruled, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits controlled digital lending?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Technology and history.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "technology", "name": "Technology", "description": "Technology.", "findings": [ { "id": "technology-finding", "name": "Technology", "description": "Technology.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do encryption, licensing servers and hardware restrictions implement DRM, at a general level?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits encryption?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How has DRM developed from early copy protection to streaming era licensing?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the history of copy protection?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should regional lockout, Tivoization and controlled digital lending be separate primary entries?", "How should technology and legal sources be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming distinct practices; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a digital rights management, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain digital rights management and its forms, relay technologies, laws and debates from technology, legal and consumer sources with attribution, describe the specific practices the registry aliases name, and distinguish DRM from copyright itself, from copy protection in general and from access control, without providing circumvention guidance.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: online pass, always-online DRM, controlled digital lending, Tivoization, regional lockout, Information Rights Management, television encryption.", "7 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 51 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a digital rights management, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "online pass", "always-online DRM", "controlled digital lending", "Tivoization", "regional lockout", "Information Rights Management", "television encryption" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 51 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 7 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one digital rights management from another, and a digital rights management from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a digital rights management, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a digital rights management, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a digital rights management is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a digital rights management, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a digital rights management, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a digital rights management is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a digital rights management sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a digital rights management, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a digital rights management, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a digital rights management is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a digital rights management from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a digital rights management, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a digital rights management, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a digital rights management is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a digital rights management passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a digital rights management between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a digital rights management, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a digital rights management, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a digital rights management is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a digital rights management, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a digital rights management is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a digital rights management, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a digital rights management, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a digital rights management is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What digital rights management is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of digital rights management are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is digital rights management operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of digital rights management and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of digital rights management?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as digital rights management?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a digital rights management came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a digital rights management and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a digital rights management, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a digital rights management, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a digital rights management is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a digital rights management is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a digital rights management, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a digital rights management, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a digital rights management is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }