Is High Definition a natural DRM?

DRM, Digital Rights Management, has become pro- lific. It is used on both physical mediums (including CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray discs) and digitally distributed content. DRM controls how, when, where and by whom content gets used. However, perfect DRM remains elusive with each variation often being cracked or circumvented by various hacking groups shortly after (or before) its release. The use of DRM grew out of the need to protect the distribution of content with file-sharing networks, which grew in size due to the proliferation of broadband internet services. However, for file-sharing to be effective, users need to have sufficient upload bandwidth relative to the memory size of the content being shared. With compressed audio and video content, file-sharing has been relatively successful, but for content that requires a memory footprint a magnitude larger than typically shared before, distribution becomes significantly harder. With the proliferation of high-definition content we argue that DRM in the traditional sense no longer appears necessary. Specifically, we posit that using the natural file size of true high- definition content essentially acts as its own form of DRM due to the extreme asymmetry of broadband speeds and vested economic incentives of ISPs with regards to enforcement.