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HEADNOTE

All digital highways led to Rome last January, as hundreds of government officials, policy experts and companies descended on the Italian capital for a conference on the future of the digital economy. Jointly hosted by the OECD and the Italian government, the meeting marked a turning point in the digital content debate as several long-simmering concerns emerged as mainstream issues.

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The discussion pointed to two competing approaches for the creation and distribution of digital content in the Internet era. One approach, advocated by conventional content companies such as the movie and music industries, as well as by US government officials, emphasised the need for digital rights management (DRM) technologies to "lock down" content. They argued that DRM allows them to set specific limitations on the use of content, thereby facilitating commercial models such as individual downloads or full subscription services.

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