119 Copyright © 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-044-0.ch006 Chapter 6 Digital Rights Management in Peer to Peer Cultural Networks Dimitrios Tsolis University of Ioannina, Greece Spyros Sioutas Ionian University, Greece INTRODUCTION Peer to Peer networking is supported by suitable software which enables a computer to locate a content file (text, image, video, sound, software etc.) on another networked device and copy the encoded data to its own hard drive. P2P technol- ogy often is used to reproduce and distribute copyrighted content without authorization of the rights owners. Except for digital music and video the P2P infrastructure is also used to make and distribute illegal copies of digital cultural content which lies under the protection of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) legislation. For this reason the short history of P2P technology and software has been one of constant controversy by many in the content industry. In the Cultural Heritage area the content owners are feeling even more threatened by the broad and unregulated exchange of digital content in P2P environments (CSTB, 1999) and cultural networks. For this reason security must be applied to Cultural Heritage networks according to the fol- lowing basic guidelines. Information integrity is ABSTRACT As a general and effective protection measure for copyright violations which occur with the use of digital technologies including peer to peer (P2P) networks, copyright owners from the cultural sector often use Digital Rights Management systems and digital watermarking techniques to encrypt copyright information with the cultural content. In other cases copyright owners restrict or even block access to the digital cultural content through the Internet and the P2P infrastructure. This chapter claims that DRM and P2P can be quite complementary. Specifcally, pa P2P infrastructure is presented which al- lows broad digital cultural content exchange while at the same time supporting copyright protection and management through watermarking technologies for digital images.