[plug] M$ again - Digital rights in Office

[James Devenish]

In message <3F557559.8090006 at postnewspapers.com.au>
on Wed, Sep 03, 2003 at 01:00:09PM +0800, Craig Ringer wrote:
> >Or rather: if there is encryption, you must decrypt the document by
> >using the correct password. If you know the encryption password, or the
> >document has a password but is not encrypted, or the document has no
> >password, then the rights restrictions are superficial. In essence: if
> >you can display a document then you can print it, too, regardless of
> >whether the authors wants you to. So, if you want to block copying,
> >printing, editing and resaving, or your want to apply an expiration
> >date, then you need to involve secret information such as passwords.
> 
> Even then, you rely on the application respecting those requests. The 
> document may be encrypted, but once decrypted you can do anything with 
> it unless the application is designed to prevent you.

Hehe, yes, my last sentence was not meant to contradict my earlier
words: "If you know the encryption password,...then the rights
restrictions are superficial".

> As such, Microsoft /could not/ allow implementation of their DRM
> system and new document format by other applications, as they couldn't
> guarantee that the app would respect the 'rights' coded into the
> document once decrypted.

Will they try to patent the method for decoding Microsoft Office
documents, in order to prevent clean-room implementations?  ;-)