Getting (and Sending) the Fax, Online

By Scott Nesbitt- August 23, 2009

One technology that refuses to give up the ghost is the fax. Businesses large and small rely on computer parts like the fax machine for exchanging documents and contracts and the like. And fax spam doesn't seem to have decreased much, either.

But faxing has never been the most efficient communications technology. You need to print the pages that you want to send, then cart them over to the fax machine. Even if you have an all-in-one printer or copier with fax capabilities, which enables you to avoid the two above steps, you never know when your device will break down. Ink cartridges and toner cost a lot. And if you're faxing outside of your area code, or outside the country, you can rack up some pretty impressive long distance charges.

Small and home office users, smaller businesses, and location-independent professionals really can't justify the expense of, or even need, a fax machine. If you have to deal with companies, clients, or organizations who rely on fax you can turn to the Internet for a cheaper, reliable alternative. And that alternative is online faxing. 

How does it work?

No feeding sheets of paper into a machine is necessary. Instead, you create an account with a Web-based service; more on this soon. From there, you need to do one of two things, depending on the service – either upload the file that you want to fax to the service, or send it to the service by email. All of the dirty work goes on behind the scenes on the service's servers. With one type of service, you log into a Web site, upload your file to the service, type the fax number of the recipient, and then just click a button.

Or, you use email. Yes, email – a technology that everyone thought would bury the fax machine. You fire up your email client and attach your document to the message. For the email address, you enter the fax number of the recipient, followed by the domain name of the fax service you're using – for example, 11234567@myfaxservice.com. The email goes to the fax service, which converts the attachment to a format that a fax machine can understand. The service strips the fax number from the email address and routes the fax to a phone line, where it finds its way to the recipient.

A number of online fax services also allow you to receive faxes. The process works in reverse. You get a toll-free number from the service, and when someone sends a fax from a machine that fax is routed to female viagra does it work a server. The server converts the fax into an electronic format, and either sends you an email with the fax as an attachment or emails you a notice to log into the service and download the fax.

File formats and such

A few paragraphs ago, I mentioned that you could upload or attach the files that you want to send. But what kinds of files can you use? That depends on the online fax service that you're using. At the very least, you can send:

• Microsoft Word documents
• PDF files
• JPEG images (the same kind of files used for photos taken with digital cameras)
• TIFF images (and older format that's compatible with faxing)

Some services support other formats, like PNG graphics or OpenDocument files, which is the file format used by the Open Source office suite OpenOffice.org.

The problem with using graphic formats like JPEG is that documents can look smudgy. TIFF files are quite large, especially ones that contain multiple pages. Most people I know who do their faxing online use PDF files. They're comparatively small, clean, and they're easy to produce.

The pros and cons of online fax

The obvious advantage is that you don't have the burden of the expense of a fax machine or a multifunction printer. As well, you don't need to worry about long distance charges when sending a fax outside of your area code. Trust me, this can add up if you have a long document.

On top of that, you can save a tree or three by not needing to print off a document before faxing it. You also have the flexibility to fax whenever and from wherever you want. All you need is a reliable Internetconnection.

On the downside, you lose a little control over your faxes. You don't know how long they'll reside on someone's server or how secure that server truly is. If you're concerned about security, you might want to avoid using online faxing for confidential documents. You're also out of luck if you don't have an Internet connection or if your chosen service is knocked offline for any length of time.

Still, for someone working out of a home office, a small business person, or a location-independent professional, the advantages of using an online fax service outweigh the disadvantages.

What to look for when choosing an online fax service

Let's say you're convinced that an online fax service is for you. Before you sign up with one, there are four main factors that you need to consider before making your choice.

First off, see if the service offers a free trial. It doesn't have to be a long one – one or two weeks should be enough. That way, you get a feel for whether or not the service and its offerings are right for you. Note that you might be limited to sending faxes only within your area. And remember to contact the people to whom you're sending the faxes to ensure that they're getting through and that they're of acceptable quality.

While there are a number of free online fax services, they might not be the best options for professional use. Why? Those services are supported by ads, which the insert on the cover page of the fax and/or at the end of a transmission. If your recipients don't mind seeing ads for, say, carpet cleaning services then you should be OK. Otherwise, a few dollars a month is a good investment.

Not every online fax service has wide-ranging global coverage. If you regularly send faxes to other countries, make sure that the service you choose will allow you to send faxes to those countries.

Also consider some of the features that you might not use regularly, but will undoubtedly find useful at some time. Features like the ability to archive faxes online for future reference and an address book that gives you quick access to people to whom you frequently send faxes.

Some services you might want to check out

Quite a bit. This TechTip will only look at some of the better or more interesting for-pay services.

First up, eFax. With eFax, you send and receive faxes as email attachments. It's easy to use, and the service supports a large number of file formats – including several whose names I haven't heard in years. eFax even supports faxing from wireless devices. There's also an OpenOffice.org extension for sending documents to eFax, and the service offers a 30 day free trial. eFax is a bit more expensive than most other services – $16.95 a month – but it is reliable and packs a lot of features.

FaxZero is a free service, which adds an add to your fax's cover page. But it also has an option that allows you to send a 15 page fax to anywhere in the United States or Canada for $1.99. And you can pay using PayPal. You just go to the FaxZero site, enter the name and fax number of the recipient (along with your name and email address), upload a Microsoft Word or PDF file, and away you go. It's quick and it's cheap; a good option for anyone who only sends faxes once in a while.

Like eFax, MyFax uses email to send and receive faxes. In fact, it allows you to send and receive from up to five different email addresses. There's also a Web interface for sending, receiving, and reading faxes and you can set up an address book of recipients. MyFax also integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office, as well as the ACT! personal information manager. The service supports 178 file formats (!), and at $10 a month is a pretty good deal.

Finally, there's PamFax. Now, PamFax is a little different from the other services discussed here. It works with Skype, the Internet telephone service. Well, at least the Windows and MacOS versions of Skype. PamFax is both a service, and a piece of software that integrates with your Skype client. When you want to send a fax, all you need to do is start PamFax, enter your recipient's fax number, select the file to send, and the click Send Fax. You can also choose a cover page, and even receive faxes from within the PamFax software.

Paying for what you send takes several forms. You pay by the page; literally pennies per. If you have a Skype Credit account, you can have PamFax deduct fees from that. There are also monthly plans, and you can buy credits. What you choose will depend on how much faxing you do.

Final thoughts

Fax is definitely a technology that refuses to die. It'll probably be around for more years than most of us want to admit. But until businesses move away from it, fax will remain an essential tool. If you need to send faxes, and don't want the expense of maintaining a fax machine, then one of the online fax services that's available is a great alternative – regardless of whether you're sending a couple of pages or hundreds of them.

Self Publishing on the “NET”

By Bryan Lambert – August 9, 2009

“Are you a writer or do you want to look like one?”  If so, then welcome to the 21st century world of self publishing!  Yes, you too can produce good quality printed works for a pittance – especially with the advent of self-publishing the internet way.  On the Internet, there are a number of self-publishing or “publish-on-demand” sites available and in this week's Tech Tip, we’ll look at some really cool things that you can do by self publishing via the Internet – the geeky way.

Make You Own Calendar, Photo Book or Print up a Family History

Making your own bit of personal memorabilia can be fun, easy and exciting.  Whether it’s a cool calendar that you hand out , a personal photo book for the coffee table or even a family history that you create with the help of Ancestry.com (see the Tech Tip on 15 cool websites) you’ll find that self-publishing sites help walk you through the process. Not only make it as painless as possible, but offer top notch on-demand printing that looks terrific and is relatively inexpensive.  Many will even grab your Facebook, Twitter or Flickr Photos.

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Sites such as Lulu.com have cool and creative step by step “wizards” and “creators” that walk you through making a terrific calendar or photo book that will be the envy of your friends and family.  Such self-publicizing sites are very up-front with costs (for example, for a standard calendar or a 20 page letter size photo book, on Lulu you’ll be looking at under $20). If you decide to venture into reselling your work they’ll help you with that too.  So in an afternoon, from the comfort of your living room you can design your calendar or photo book and then have it shipped to you – geeky fun for all.

Get that Novel Published (kind-of)

Four years ago, I participated in a wonderful experience of tossing together a 50,000 word novel in just one month – by participating in “National Novel Writing Month” held every November (see www.NaNoWriMo.org for details if you think you’re up to it).  Typically, if you reach the magic 50K mark, one of the self publishing sites will print out a free copy of your novel for you.  Obviously, since these are self publishing websites, any services such as editing and layout are extra, but in this modern computer age, many of us are up to that task.  The last year (November 2008) www.CreateSpace.com kindly stepped up to the plate to make this offer available to NaNoWriMo participants.

If you have a novel already done up, why not have a self-publisher site print up a copy for you – it’s something that you can look at for inspiration as you submit copies of it to commercial publishers for their “slush piles.” – or If you are an enterprising type, feel free to try these sites for posting/selling your work – it usually (for the most basic services) will not run you anything to have it up for sale. Self printing novels is actually pretty cheap considering how much you pay for paperbacks these days. For example, for many novels of around 100 pages – you’re looking at under $10.

Look around at what some other people have done

Despite the knock that some uninformed people may give the self-publisher businesses, you’ll be surprised at some of the really good quality items you’ll run across (and how cheap some of it is – some publishers will even let you have e-copies free).   Self-publisher websites are kind of like the “America’s Got Talent” of the writing world – you’ll never know what you discover!  True there may be some duds but you’ll be sure to run across some gems as well in the process.

Concluding words

In truth, this Tech Tip just scratches some of the cool things that you can do in the world of self-publishing.  For example, some sites allow video and musical content as well as the written word.  So get cracking and go ahead and explore this very cool, very geeky and very 21st century version of self-publishing – the Internet way.

A Linux Live CD to the Rescue!

By Scott Nesbitt – August 2, 2009

Computer hard drives. They're an essential component of your computing experience. While they're not as fragile as they were even 10 years ago, they're often one of the weak links in the chain of hardware that makes up a desktop computer or a laptop computer.

When something goes wrong with a hard drive, you can be in a lot of trouble. Especially if you haven't backed up your data recently. If you need that data – whether it's office documents, photos, videos, or all of the above – right now it can cost you. Professional data recovery can cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. And there's no guarantee of success.

But before going that route, you might be able to do the job yourself if you're willing to get your hands dirty. How? All you need is a blank CD, a USB flash drive, and some Linux Live CD software.

More than just for a test drive

As discussed in a previous TechTip, Linux Live CDs are a great way to take Linux for a spin without installing it on your computer. But there are other Live CDs that perform special jobs.

What kinds of jobs? How about trying to fix a computer that's not playing nicely.

The situation

A few months ago, my wife's laptop (which ran Windows XP) wouldn't start properly. It would power up, then display a screen which informed her that the last shutdown wasn't completed properly. There were several boot options presented. But no matter which one my wife chose, Windows would try to start then the laptop would suddenly reboot. With the same message as before.

Nothing my wife or I tried worked. Instead of doing something drastic, like trying to reinstall Windows or Linux, or reformatting the hard drive, I tried starting the computer in safe mode, without the option to reboot automatically on an error. When I did this, the boot up stalled when XP was trying to load a driver called mup.sys. I did some research, and learned that mup.sys can get corrupted or infected with a virus. As it turned out, there was more to the problem than that.

I got the feeling that I might be able to salvage the hard drive. If nothing else, I figured I could get the most important files off that laptop.

To do that, I decided to turn to a Linux Live CD for help.

Getting the Live CD

In this case, the Live CD was actually a rescue CD. I looked at several, and on the recommendation of a couple of techie pals, I got my hands on one called SystemRescueCD.

SystemRescueCD comes with a number of utilities for analyzing and diagnosing problems with a hard drive or system memory, and for recovering from failures and errors. While SystemRescueCD comes with a very lightweight graphical user interface, most of the utilities are run from the command line.

If you need help with running the utilities, even if you are an experienced Linux user, then you should take the time to browse the documentation for SystemRescueCD.

It helps, believe me.

Burning the disk image

I downloaded an ISO image, which is literally a snapshot of the contents of a disk – in this case, a stripped-down Linux operating system and a bunch of utilities.

When you have an ISO image, you need to burn it to a blank CD as a disk image. In Windows, you can use a nifty freeware application called ISO Recorder. Just about every CD burning application for Linux allows you to burn an ISO image.

On Mac OS X, just select Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility, then choose Images > Burn.

Getting to work

Once I had the CD ready, I popped it into CD-ROM drive of my wife's laptop, and restarted it. Luckily, her laptop was set to boot from the CD-ROM drive. If this doesn't work for you, change this in your computer's BIOS settings. Depending on your computer, you do this by pressing F2 or ESC or DEL when the computer firsts starts up.

The first thing I did once the Live CD loaded was try to mount the Windows partition on the hard drive from the command line.

In Linux terms, mounting merely means getting access to a file system or drive. 

The command I used was:

mount -t ntfs /dev/sda2 /mnt/windows -o ro

This tells the command to access an NTFS file system (the default used by Windows) via the device /dev/sda2 (which is how the Live CD detected the hard drive), and to let me access the drive using the directory /mnt/windows.

That worked. So, I plugged in one of my 4 GB USB flash drives and mounted that with the following command:

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb1

This allowed me to get access to the flash drive via the directory /mnt/usb1.

I ran the command cd /mnt/windows to change to the Windows drive, and then navigated my way to the folder where my wife kept her files. Using the Linux copy command (cp), I then transferred the files over to the flash drive. That took a while; there were about 3GB of files there.

A pair of funny things happened when copying the files. First, some files refused copy over. Second, many of the files had long names. When they were copied over to the flash drive, the names got truncated and the a good chunk of those names were replaced with a tilde (~).

Trying to save the hard drive

While I managed to salvage most of my wife's files, I wanted to see if I could also save the hard drive. SystemRescueCD comes with a powerful utility that can help determine this called testdisk. Testdisk can do diagnostics on and recover hard disks. It has a text-based interface. You don't have to type commands, but instead selection option by tabbing, using the up and down arrow keys, and pressing Enter. It's like many DOS programs of yore.

I ran the first check by selecting the Analyse option. For some reason the program stalled. After killing testdisk, I looked at the log file that it produced. In the log file was an error message stating that there was a problem with the number of disk sectors. That's not a good sign. Disk sectors store large lumps of data. If they're damaged, a hard drive is usually toast.

Next, I ran a check on the physical cylinders of the hard drive by selecting the Deeper Search option. Testdisk got through about 97% of the deeper search, and it stalled too. That indicated that there was a physical problem with the hard drive and that there was no way I was going to save it.

effects viagra /> Summing up

A Linux Live CD, especially one like SystemRescueCD, can be a good way of recovering your files if your computer starts acting up. A tool like SystemRescueCD is a bit geeky, and can be a tad difficult to use if you have no experience with backup software.

Open Source Alternatives to Popular Windows Apps

By Scott Nesbitt – Sunday, July 26, 2009

When you think of Open Source software, the first thing that comes to mind is probably Linux or maybe Mozilla Firefox. One not uncommon misconception about Open Source is that the software, except for certain applications, is only available for Linux.

Obviously, that's not true. There are countless Open Source applications for Windows (and Mac OS, too). It sounds strange creating free software for an operating system that's not free but Open Source gives Windows users a lot of flexibility and a number of solid alternatives to popular Windows apps.

This TechTip looks at a few alternatives to some popular Windows applications. These alternatives can save you money while giving you the features and functions that that you need to get things done.

Microsoft Office

It's no secret that Microsoft Office is the de-facto standard for productivity applications. Office is also quite expensive. If you want to buy a copy for your desktop computer  or laptop computer, you can expect to shell out around $150 for the home version and about $400 for the full version. The funny thing about Microsoft Office is that, for many users, it contains more features and functions than they'll ever use.

The main Open Source competitor to Microsoft Office is OpenOffice.org. It's a complete suite of productivity applications — a word processor (think Microsoft Word), a spreadsheet (think Excel), a presentation program (think PowerPoint), a drawing application, and a database. Each component is easy to use — although it will take a bit of time to get used to the user interface — and packs some features that Microsoft Office lacks, like the ability to output PDF files. OpenOffice.org can import and export Microsoft Office formats, although the quality of the results will depend on how complex the file is.

One interesting feature of OpenOffice.org is that you can expand it by using extensions. The extensions add a number of features, including an array of templates, the ability to connect to exchange files with Google Docs, enhance the charting capabilities, and more.

What happens if you only need a word processor? Then you should give AbiWord a look. It's small, it's fast, and it packs just about every feature that you'd need. Like what? How about columns, headers and footers, tables, mail merge, endnotes and footnotes. AbiWord also has a collaboration feature, which enables you to work on a document with others either on a local network or over the Web.

And like OpenOffice.org, you can extend AbiWord with plugins. A bunch come bundled with it — ones for translation, connecting to online dictionaries and Wikipedia, doing a search with Google, and more. On top of that, AbiWord has decent support for Word files and can import and export to the format used by OpenOffice.org's word processor.

If, on the other hand, you want a simple but powerful spreadsheet then give Gnumerica look. Like Microsoft Excel, it supports a variety of mathematical functions (about 520of them) and graphing. There are also a number of tools in Gnumeric for doing mathematical analysis, and it can import and/or export over 20 other file formats including Excel.. The only major function of Excel that Gnumeric lacks is pivot tables. That's on the list of priorities for the developers, though.

Outlook

There's no arguing that Microsoft Outlook is the most popular email application on the Windows desktop — whether in its full version or as Outlook Express, which does viagra make you last longer ships with Windows. While there are a large number of email clients on the Open Source side of the fence, only one can compete with Outlook in the areas of features and functions. And that application is Mozilla Thunderbird.

Thunderbird is one of those applications that really packs a lot, but isn't really slowed down by all that bulk. Much like Outlook, you can use Thunderbird to connect to multiple email accounts and to send either plain text or HTML emails. Thunderbird also enables you to connect to Web-based email services like Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. You can download messages from your Web-based accounts, and send them using whatever email address you want.

Another feature that brings a bit more flexibility to Thunderbird is that, like Outlook, it supports both POP and IMAP email. IMAP support makes it easier to synchronize Thunderbird with the messages on an email server.

Thunderbird also has a number of other useful features, like the ability to tag messages. By defining tags, you can label your messages by their importance and by their function — for example: Work, Personal, Writing.

You can make up for any deficit in Thunderbird's features by using add-ons. And there are a lot of them — several hundred, in fact. The available add-ons expand the ways in which you read messages and work with contacts, turn the app into an RSS feed reader, enhance Thunderbird's privacy and security features, and even add a flexible calendar. You can also install themes to change the look and feel of the application.

Windows Media Player

Back in the old days of computing, Windows Media Player was a lean and fast little audio and video app. But it got way too big for its boots. It's now a DVD player, an iTunes wannabe, a CD ripper, an interface to MP3 players. Just to name a few. Many people I know complain that it's slow, bloated, and buggy. Why settle for more when you can something a little smaller? That's where these two Open Source alternatives come in.

VLC (short for Video LAN Client) is a wonderfully compact, yet powerful audio and video player. It supports a large number of formats — far more than any other media player that I've used. In fact, VLC has been able to play media files that other players — including Windows Media Player — have balked at. With some media files, like Windows AVI, VLC even repairs damaged files. Not always, but often better than any other desktop media player I've tried.

In addition to audio and video files that are on your hard drive or home network, VLC can also play CDs, DVDs, and streaming audio and video from the Web. With streaming media, you can use VLC to either stream audio or video on to a network or save a stream to a file.

Editing photos and drawing

No matter who you are, there comes a time (usually more than one) when you need to edit a photo taken with a digital camera or create a diagram for a school paper or for work. The big commercial software players in that space are Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator, and Microsoft Visio. Again, for the majority of users the Open Source alternatives can more than hold their own.

Editing photos

The best-known Open Source photo and image editor is The GIMP(GNU Image Manipulation Program). With The GIMP, you can retouch photos, manipulate them in a variety of ways — from resizing and cropping to flipping them on their axes — and convert images to other formats. The GIMP comes with a large number of filters for applying effects to an image. And it comes with over 40 tools for modifying and just plain messing with photos and graphics. All in all, it's a more than fairly complete editing package.

More than a couple of people have whined that The GIMP doesn't look like Photoshop!That's where GIMPshop comes in. GIMPshop changes the look of The GIMP and even the names of the menus and their items to better match those of Photoshop. Note, though, that GIMPshop doesn't support the wide array of (frankly wicked) Photoshop plugins. However, it can use The GIMP's plugins.

Don't forget the diagrams

Photos aren't the only type of images that people work with. Whether you're a student or a professional, diagrams and flowcharts are also very important. Instead of putting a dent in your bank account to the tune of several hundred dollars for Illustrator or Visio, give these Open Source apps a try.

First up, Inkscape. Inkscape is a vector drawing tool. Whereas photos and other graphics are made up of little blocks, vector drawings consist of lines and curves. This makes software like Inkscape perfect for creating diagrams or line drawings.

Using Inkscape, you can combine lines and curves, and add text or even import bitmap graphics to enhance a drawing. It's not just black and white, either. You can add color or fill portions of a diagram with a specific color. You can also use Inkscape to create 3D images. Inkscape user have created a variety of different graphics with it, ranging from icons to backgrounds for Web pages to book covers. In fact, Inkscape includes a wizard the enables you to generate the template for a book layout based on the number of pages in that book.

Inkscape's native file format is SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). However, you can export an Inkscape file to various bitmap graphic formats like PNG, BMP, JPG, and PDF. Very useful if you want to pull the your drawings into another program.

Dia, on the other hand, is designed for creating flow charts and technical diagrams. Like Microsoft Visio, Dia uses shapes and lines to build a diagram or flow chart. It's not a pretty application, but it's easy to use and gets the job done nicely.

As you might expect, Dia comes with a library of shapes (called objects). Most of them are aimed at programmers, engineers, and network administrators. That said, you can use the object and Dia itself for any purpose. I know people who use it to create organizational charts and to do basic information architecture for Web sites.

As with Inkscape, you can save Dia diagrams in various bitmap graphics formats including EPS, SVG, and PDF.

Wrapping up

Open Source isn't just for Linux. Windows users can take advantage of the offerings from the Open Source ecosystem, too. Look around. You never know what you might find. In fact, you might just turn up a replacement for a favorite Windows application.

DRM: Here Today, (Hopefully) Gone Tomorrow?

By Scott Nesbitt – Sunday, July 19, 2009

It's your birthday. Someone gives you a DVD of your favorite movie. In anticipation of a long train ride you're going to be taking soon, you decide to make a copy of the DVD that you can download to your MP4 digital media player.

You pop the DVD in your desktop computer and try to rip it. But it doesn't work. The DVD plays on your DVD player and on your computer.

Welcome to the world of DRM, one of the most contentious issues in the digital world today. Say you don't know what DRM is? Read on.

What is DRM?

DRM is short for Digital Rights Management (although some say it means Digital Restrictions Management). It's a set of technologies that's restricts how you can use digital content like music, video, and software. DRM is designed to stop or limit you from copying, converting, or accessing digital media.

DRM can block you from viewing something like an ebook on a device other than your ebook reader. It can stop you from ripping a CD or converting an audio file from one format to another. Or, it can prevent you from installing software (like games) on multiple computers.

How it works is fairly simple. DRM applies encryption, in the form of a digital signature, to a file or a piece of software. The signature is like a unique stamp, telling the hardware or operating system software that whether or not it's OK for them to play together.

If the device or operating system on your desktop computer or laptop computer doesn't mesh with the digital signature of the file, then the file will be useless to you or you won't be able to install the software. Often, DRM is tied to one piece of hardware. If, for example, you have an MP3 file with DRM applied to it, that file might only play on one computer or MP3 do you need a prescription for viagra player.

There are, and have been, a number of DRM schemes. Some of the more widely-used ones are Windows Media DRM and Apple's FairPlay. You can read more about some of the better-known DRM schemes here.

Examples of DRM

As mentioned a few paragraphs ago, DRM can be applied to any digital file. Like what? How about an electronic book. Most ebook readers and reader software for computers have a unique ID. Some ebook sellers require you to register the IDs of those devices when you buy an ebook. A digital signature is applied to the ebook before you download it, and you can only read the ebook on those devices.

With digital television, many transmissions have a form of DRM called a broadcast flag applied to them. The broadcast flag indicates whether or not you can record the digital transmission and, if you can, what restrictions there are on recording it.

Microsoft Office (2003 and later) allows business users to apply DRM to word processor and spreadsheet files. If the business is running Microsoft Windows Server 2003, all that Office users need to do is click a toolbar icon to restrict permissions on a file. If anyone wants to read the file, they'll need to get the author's permission and get an add-on for Internet Explorer.

Why use DRM?

The folks who advocate DRM, like record companies and publishers, do so to enforce copyright and to protect their revenue. I'm sure that everyone remembers Napster. It was a file sharing service, one that really opened a huge can of worms as far as DRM and copyright went by allowing people to share digital music over the Internet.

The musicians and, especially, the record companies complained that they weren't getting royalties for this. It wasn't a new problem, just a new twist on an old one. Instead of people trading cassette tapes and burned CDs with family and friends, file sharing services like Napster enabled them to exchange huge numbers of files with strangers from around the world.

It's a matter of trust

The content providers that advocate and use DRM technologies will tell you that they're protecting their interests. They argue that every book, movie, or MP3 that's copied is one less book, movie, or MP3 that they can sell.

DRM restrictions, though, treat consumers like potential thieves. That's not a healthy relationship, and overlooks the value of viral marketing. Case in point: last year, a friend passed me a couple of MP3 files by a musician named Zoe Keating. I loaded the MP3s on my media player, and listened to the music while commuting. I was so impressed that I went out and bought another of Keating's albums. If the MP3 files that my friend passed my way had DRM applied to them, then I might not have ever heard Zoe Keating or bought one of her discs.

A number of writers and other artists are against DRM. One of the most vocal opponents of DRM is author and blogger Cory Doctorow.Whenever one of Doctorow's books is published, he makes it available for download (for free) from his Web site. All with the permission of his publisher. While some people mock Doctorow for doing this, he claims that doing this actually increases the sales of his books.

Another proponent of a world without DRM is author and comic writer Neil Gaiman. He's all for people sharing electronic copies of his work. Why? Gaiman likens it to people lending their friends a book or a CD. It exposes those friends to a new artist, and often spurs them to buy another of the artist's work.

Even a once staunch supporter of DRM, the band Metallica, has begun to change its tune (so to speak). In 2008, the band made DRM-free music available on its Web site.

Dealing with DRM

That's definitely a contentious issue. Much like DRM itself. Many consumers don't care whether their music or movies or software has DRM applied to it. As long as they can watch, listen, and use everything is fine.

That said, there's a growing anti-DRM movement. More and more people are speaking out against DRM, and working against it with their wallets.

So, what are your options? You can accept DRM. Or, you can choose to not buy movies, music, and software that has DRM applied to it. Both the Apple iTunes Store and Amazon.com offer DRM-free downloads of thousands of songs. (Amazon, though, is bi-polar in this regard: ebooks for the Kindle are locked down with a form of DRM.). Or, you can turn off formats that support DRM altogether, and go with Open Source formats like Ogg Theora and Ogg Vorbis.

Summing up

DRM is definitely a contentious subject. At the heart of the arguments for and against DRM is the issue of rights. The rights of the people producing and marketing content, and the rights of the consumers of that content. It's going to be a long time before both sides can find an acceptable middle ground, assuming there is one.

What are your thoughts about DRM? Feel free to leave a comment.