Aussie Aborigines inspire DRM

A NEW DRM scheme, which is based on a user profile, has been inspired by Australian Aboriginal cultural project.

According to the Beeb, boffins building a historical archive of the Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari people hit a slight snag when trying to give people access.

Aboriginals have fairly strict laws about what people are a allowed to see. Outsiders and women are not allowed to see some things, Men cannot watch women's rituals, etc.

The boffins decided that the only way to show the archive was with a fairly involved form of DRM. Software asks everyone who logs into the database for their name, age, sex and standing within their community. Then it refuses to let them go where they should not.

Dr Kimberly Christian, who helped to develop the archive, said the database had grown out of a programme to repatriate a lot of images and things that had been taken from the community.

Images are arranged in their own categories, with content tagged with security restrictions.

Whether or not the concept could have legs in the rest of DRM world is another matter. It really depends on people to be honest and not want to peak at things that do not concern them.

More here. µ