IFLA Statement on Technological Protection Measures, and the Proposed Integration of Encrypted Media Extensions into the HTML Standard (16 July 2017)

Digital channels are becoming ever more dominant as a means of sharing and accessing content. They bring a speed and simplicity of use, at near-zero marginal costs, that have brought us much closer to realising the objective of universal access to culture and innovation. The same process has created challenges for the enforcement of copyright – once a work has been copied, it can spread rapidly, potentially faster than legal systems can respond. Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) in general, and Digital Rights Management (DRM) in particular, aim to reduce infringement of copyright by controlling the way in which a work is used by technical (rather than legal) means.