Content providers can charge money or ask for information before issuing a license. Many sites now request an e-mail address in exchange for clip licenses. Music companies can then use this e-mail address to keep the fan up to date on concert schedules and new CD releases, or to market related merchandise. Once a user registers or pays, they can then play the downloaded media file without connecting to the Internet. If an expiration date is used with the license, the content will play until the expiration date is reached.
Consumers can freely distribute the media files, through email or on Web sites.
But because licenses are unique to each user and cannot be shared or copied, each consumer must acquire a license to play media files. Windows Media Technologies uses one of the strongest DRM encryption schemes now available. Every file is stored in an encrypted format unique to each PC, which makes it extremely difficult to break the license protection or copy the file. The Windows Media Technologies encryption scheme would take days of supercomputer time to decode. To further raise the protection level, a content owner can change the content encryption keys daily, or even every few hours.