Digital culture : Digital "Rights" Management
Whether you're a technical computer user or not, over coming months and years you are going to hear an increasing amount about Digital "Rights" (a euphemism for 'Restrictions') Management, otherwise known as DRM, or sometimes IRM ('I' for 'Information'). Sometimes it will be explicitly mentioned, sometimes it will be implicit in features of software that claim to be able to restrict how someone else uses some data you give them.
I've written two pieces about this topic: the first in early 2003 called 'The Fallacy of DRM' and a second, more recent one - a response to the 2004 European Commission consultation on DRM.