DRM and IPM - What is the difference?

For many managers who have been asked to look into the need for managing rights and enforcing usage limitations on digital files the broad meaning of the term Digital Rights Management (DRM) is confusing.

There is no true rule but I have found the following distinction between DRM and Intellectual Property Management (IPM) very useful. DRM in this case would describe those technologies that enforce consumer facing usage limitations or those that track the usage of content with the goal to monitor the usage of digital content by consumers or business partners.