Microsoft Awarded Patent For Peer-To-Peer DRM

An anonymous reader writes "Music DRM might not be as dead as previously thought. InformationWeek reports that Microsoft has been awarded a digital-rights management patent for a distributed DRM system that works over peer-to-peer networks and uses encrypted public and private keys as the licensing mechanism. The author claims that patent number 7,594,275, entitled simply 'Digital rights management system,' is significant because, while centralized music stores like iTunes don't use DRM anymore, the Microsoft patent makes it possible that peer-to-peer networks could reemerge in the future as a viable, albeit protected, source of content."

Re:Question

[ciderVisor]

Needles to say, he was... *cuckoo*.M/quote>

Sounds more he was a drug-dealer with wads of unlaundered money.

Maybe that would account for the needles.

Re:End software patents!!!

[V!NCENT]

Well... it sure as hell won't be a patent that Linux will ever infringe on...