On Distributing the Future, an O’Reilly Network podcast, the latest episode, “Security, DRM, and Sony,” is essential listening for podcasters and anyone who listens to CDs or watches DVDs.

From the precis, you might think it’s another rant on the Sony DRM brouhaha. But it’s not. This podcast presents an essential overview of DRM for content users and small producers. The Sony thing is just a fortuitous example used in a frank, easy-to-follow discussion of DRM.

One point they made that really resonated with me is that DRM treats legitimate users as attackers. DRM tries to limit legitimate use to what the content producer considers to be reasonable, rather than what copyright considers to be reasonable. That tiny difference is significant, because it tries to give the the content producer control over legitimate uses, such as review, commentary, and criticism. (If you were a giant media conglomerate, would you make sure everyone who wanted to critique your work had a fair-use copy of it to rip to shreds? Even independent commentators? Even political activists?)

The ability to review and criticize published works is essential to a podcast like mine. And I expect there to be many such podcasts in the future, such as video and movie review podcasts, as podcasting matures, and not all of them will follow conventional standards of critique. One of the neat things about podcasting is that you can publish content that speaks to even a small audince, because it’s so cheap. You don’t need a TV or radio station. There are already many interesting shows out there that speak to small audiences, and that’s good. We’re witnessing the democratization of media, and the established media ain’t gonna take it quietly. And DRM is one of the bombs they will drop on us.

The language of DRM treats legitimate users as attackers. But in the DRM war, the true attackers end up being content producers that rely on DRM. It has to end up this way. DRM is technologically bankrupt. The only alternative is to resort to raw force. For example, the Sony DRM that caused the hubbub was conceptually based on a cracker tool, called a rootkit, used to hack up Unix systems. A rootkit allows a cracker to get super-user access, anytime he wants, to the attacked computer. In order to do this, it surreptitiously replaces parts of the computer’s operating-system and covers its own tracks so that you can’t even tell it’s there. Usually, the only way to recover from such an attack is to wipe the system completely and reinstall everything from scratch. In the annals of computer security, people have gone to jail for less than this, at least people without deep pockets and strong political connections.