[plug] M$ again - Digital rights in Office

[indy at THE-TECH.MIT.EDU]

On Wed, Sep 03, 2003 at 01:05:41PM +0800, Craig Ringer wrote:
> > You need a Win2k3 server with Windows Rights Management on it to even 
> > access it
> 
> Hmm... upon further thought, that may not be correct. Certainly for 
> creation, but perhaps not for normal work with the documents. You do, 
> though, need Office2k3.


Actually Craig, I believe you were right the first time.

As this is a Linux list I don't know for sure how many people are 
familiar with Windows 2000 file encryption etc. Suffice to say that
W2K has a PKI based file encryption system built in, but the security
model only really works if you are running a full Active Directory
domain. The most logical way for MS to implement document DRM is as an
extension of their current encryption infrastructure.

This has for them the positive side effect that companies who want to
try using the DRM have to upgrade their entire Windows network to
something fairly modern, finally providing a reason to force big
companies to upgrade those thousands of workstations running 95,98,
NT4 etc. despite the large cost.

That upgrade cost will make many organisations think twice though I
suspect, especially as it guarantees licensing troubles ahead.

In terms of interoperability it's also worth noting that if you put
DRM into a file, Office 2K3 won't magically be able to read it, unless
you are part of the PKI for the Windows network where it was
created. Thus, files created for widespread use will be accessible to
Open Source reverse engineering just as the Office 2000 file formats
were. It sucks to have to do all that work again, but Office 2K3 will
only prevent uptake of OSS solutions within an organisation, the rest
of the market is still there to be won.


Indy


-- 
Indranath Neogy
<indy at the-tech.mit.edu>