Question 1

What is DRM, and why does content you bought disappear?

Accepted Answer

**Digital rights management** is technology restricting how digital content can be used, copied and accessed. Its existence is why "buying" digital content frequently does not mean what the button says.

**How it works.** Content is encrypted, and playing it requires a **licence** obtained from the seller's servers — typically checked at playback or periodically. The licence, not the file, is what grants access.

**Common implementations:** Widevine, PlayReady and FairPlay for streaming video; Adobe DRM for ebooks; and the systems built into games platforms.

**Why content disappears:**

**Licensing expiry.** This is the most common cause. A streaming service licensed a film for a period; when the period ends the content is removed, regardless of whether you "bought" it through that platform.

**Platform closure.** If the company shuts the service down, the **licence servers** go with it. The encrypted files may still be on your device and are unplayable, because nothing can issue the key. This has happened repeatedly — several ebook and video stores have closed, with varying degrees of compensation.

**Rights disputes** between the platform and the rights holder.

**Account issues**, including closure or a region change.

**The legal position, which surprises people.** Terms of service for most digital stores grant a **licence to access**, not ownership of a copy — despite an interface saying "Buy". Regulators have taken an interest in this mismatch, and some jurisdictions now require clearer labelling, with California legislating specifically against advertising digital goods as purchased where access can be revoked.

**The criticisms:**

**It fails at its stated purpose.** Determined copying happens regardless, so the restrictions are felt principally by paying customers.

**It breaks legitimate uses** — format shifting, accessibility tools, archiving, and lending.

**Preservation.** DRM content cannot be reliably archived, which is a genuine cultural problem.

**Circumvention is separately unlawful** in many jurisdictions, even for lawful purposes.

**DRM-free options exist**, and are worth preferring where available.

Question 2

Why do old files become unreadable, and what is digital preservation?

Accepted Answer

Because a file is only meaningful to software that understands its format, and both the software and the medium it sits on decay — on timescales far shorter than people assume. The three separate

Question 3

What happens to your digital accounts when you die?

Accepted Answer

Far less automatically than people assume. Most accounts are licences to use a service, not property, and access is governed by the provider's terms rather than by your will — which is why planning

Question 4

What is the difference between proprietary, permissive and copyleft licences?

Accepted Answer

What you are permitted to do with the software, and — critically for the last of them — what you must do if you distribute your own version. Proprietary. The copyright holder grants a limited licence

Question 5

What metadata does a file contain, and what can it reveal?

Accepted Answer

Metadata is data about the file rather than its visible content. Almost every file carries some, and it frequently reveals considerably more than people intend to share. Photographs — EXIF data: GPS

Question 6

What is shadow IT?

Accepted Answer

Technology used for work without the knowledge or approval of the organisation's IT function — personal cloud storage, unapproved apps, a departmental subscription paid on a card, a spreadsheet

Question 7

What is content provenance, and what is C2PA?

Accepted Answer

A way of recording where a piece of media came from and what was done to it, cryptographically attached to the file — an approach to the synthetic media problem that works in the opposite direction

Related Questions