Location-based Digital Rights Management

It seems that a patent was just issued, to Microsoft, for a method and system for location-based licensing. This system would allow the owner of content to specify the locations or geographical areas where the content can be consumed. The licensed device’s location would be checked against the locational constraints before it would be allowed to access content. I’m sure we can all imagine many annoying ways that this could be put to use…….Over on his blog, Kevin Maney speculates that Apple will be licensing the technology any day now to prevent iTunes songs from playing on devices in France.