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The "DRM" acronym for Direct Rendering Manager goes all the way back to the 1999 Linux driver for 3dfx graphics cards. It predates the "Digital Rights Managemen

The "DRM" acronym for Direct Rendering Manager goes all the way back to the 1999 Linux driver for 3dfx graphics cards. It predates the "Digital Rights Management" acronym by at least 5 years.

tragiclos 3y ago
I've always associated DRM with the [DMCA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_A...) which was signed into law in 1998. Do you have a source for Digital Rights Management originating in the mid-2000s?
- gjm11 3y ago
  For what it's worth, the Oxford English Dictionary gives two citations for the phrase, one from January 1996 and one from May 2005. It's not obvious to me from the quoted text whether the 1996 citation actually has quite the same meaning as we're talking about here. It's from something in PR Newswire, and it says: "As an industry consultant Bob has been a leader in developing business strategies and cooperative relationships in the area of digital rights management and content distribution." And what's not clear to me is whether that's "digital (rights management)" -- i.e., using computer technology to enforce copyright etc., the usual present-day use of the term -- or "(digital rights) management" -- i.e., everything to do with handling copyright etc. in the specific context of digital data.
- pengaru 3y ago
  Neither DRM or Digital Rights Management are mentioned in the actual DMCA legislation. This terminology emerged later IIRC. https://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf https://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf
yrro 3y ago
Google Books Ngram Viewer shows 'digital rights management' taking off around 1996. It's close though. An annoying clash that can't be fixed now. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=digital+rights+management&year_start=1980&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=1&case_insensitive=true https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=digital+rights...
darrenf 3y ago
I'm not so sure about this claim. Here's a Microsoft press release from April '99 about digital rights management, which uses the DRM acronym throughout: https://news.microsoft.com/1999/04/13/microsoft-and-reciprocal-extend-strategic-alliance-to-deliver-digital-rights-management-solution-based-on-windows-media-technologies-4-0/ https://news.microsoft.com/1999/04/13/microsoft-and-reciproc... Seems like they filed for a patent that same month using the same terminology https://patents.google.com/patent/US7103574B1/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US7103574B1/en

The "DRM" acronym for Direct Rendering Manager goes all the way back to the 1999 Linux driver for 3dfx graphics cards. It predates the "Digital Rights Management" acronym by at least 5 years.

tragiclos 3y ago

I've always associated DRM with the [DMCA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_A...) which was signed into law in 1998. Do you have a source for Digital Rights Management originating in the mid-2000s?

gjm11 3y ago
For what it's worth, the Oxford English Dictionary gives two citations for the phrase, one from January 1996 and one from May 2005. It's not obvious to me from the quoted text whether the 1996 citation actually has quite the same meaning as we're talking about here. It's from something in PR Newswire, and it says: "As an industry consultant Bob has been a leader in developing business strategies and cooperative relationships in the area of digital rights management and content distribution." And what's not clear to me is whether that's "digital (rights management)" -- i.e., using computer technology to enforce copyright etc., the usual present-day use of the term -- or "(digital rights) management" -- i.e., everything to do with handling copyright etc. in the specific context of digital data.
pengaru 3y ago
Neither DRM or Digital Rights Management are mentioned in the actual DMCA legislation. This terminology emerged later IIRC. https://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf https://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf

yrro 3y ago

Google Books Ngram Viewer shows 'digital rights management' taking off around 1996. It's close though. An annoying clash that can't be fixed now. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=digital+rights+management&year_start=1980&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=1&case_insensitive=true https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=digital+rights...

darrenf 3y ago

I'm not so sure about this claim. Here's a Microsoft press release from April '99 about digital rights management, which uses the DRM acronym throughout: https://news.microsoft.com/1999/04/13/microsoft-and-reciprocal-extend-strategic-alliance-to-deliver-digital-rights-management-solution-based-on-windows-media-technologies-4-0/ https://news.microsoft.com/1999/04/13/microsoft-and-reciproc... Seems like they filed for a patent that same month using the same terminology https://patents.google.com/patent/US7103574B1/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US7103574B1/en