From time to time, new words, or phrases pop up that are appropriately formed, but not entirely intuitive. For those instances, you can count on Sarcastic Gamer Dictionary to enlighten us all. Today’s phrase is “DRM,” also known as “Digital Rights Manglement,” a simple enough phrase, but the meaning might not be clear…

Lets open the Sarcastic Gamer Dictionary for the definition…

DRM or Digital Rights Manglement dig-it-al rights man-gle-ment [dij-i-tl rahyts mang-guh-l-muh-nt] –noun

1. A control system designed to give the false sense that electronically purchased media can be used in a flexible manner across a wide variety of consumer devices, when in reality it is designed to precisely approach (but never reach) that point, ultimately frustrating consumers into buying the same media across differing DRM systems, knowing good and well when that generation of device and/or DRM is dead, they’ll have to purchase the media again.

See related: iTunes, Playsation Video Store, Xbox Live Video Marketplace, PSN and XBLA.

2. A complex system of digital authentication used to determine proper rights to play back protected media.  When the DRM provider or device manufacturer ceases support or production on the system and authentication can not be successfully completed, all media produced under it becomes unplayable and worthless.

See related: DIVX  (Digital Video Express), Yahoo Music, and MSN Music

Sample Sentence: I just blew my tip money on Castlevania Symphony of the Night and an episode of Heroes, but thanks to the DRM they’re using I somehow have the feeling I’ll be able to repeat that same exact sentence in another five years.

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