Microsoft Prepares Office Lock-in

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Microsoft Prepares Office Lock-in

Posted by michael on Tuesday September 2, 2003 @05:27AM from the stupid-business-lining-up-to-lock-themselves-in dept.

An anonymous reader writes "NEWS.COM has an article describing Office 2003's DRM features for documents. This will not only coerce those running older versions of Office to upgrade, which has been a problem for MS in the last few years, but it will also shut out competing software, such as OpenOffice. Now think about this for a second. Even if the developers of a competing office suite could figure out how to get their software to open an Office 2003 document, doing so would be a DMCA violation, since they'd be bypassing an anti-circumvention device. I certainly hope the OpenOffice team will kick development into high gear. If there was a time we need a viable competitor to Office, it's now."

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Interoperability is protected by DMCA by TrentC · 2003-09-02 05:30 · Score: 5, Informative

For those of you who like to throw DMCA around like a big, evil boogeyman, last time I checked, reverse-engineering for the purposes of interoperability is allowed by the DMCA.

Jay (=
1. Re:Interoperability is protected by DMCA by Fareq · 2003-09-02 05:36 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  that is correct, however OpenOffice (or any other similar product) would have to support all the DRM features that MS Office did.
  
  If it was possible for a user who shouldn't have access to a file to use another application to read it, then that app would be in violation of the DMCA because it is a circumvention device.
  
  If it respected all the DRM nonsense, then it would probably fall under the interoperability portion of the law. At least that's the way I read it.
not by default... by ceswiedler · 2003-09-02 05:32 · Score: 5, Informative

The article points out, and I agree, that it's unlikely DRM will be applied to documents by default, since implementing it requires configuring Windows Server 2003 and ensuring both the creator and reader of the document have access/accounts on the Rights server.

It's really targeted at businesses which make heavy use of Active Directory already (or would switch to doing so), so that Finance people can restrict access to sensitive salary documents and such. Most people, even if they can apply DRM to a document, won't choose to do so. How many people change the rights for their local drives to remove access for 'Everyone'?
Re:The straw that broke the PHB's back? by GrenDel+Fuego · 2003-09-02 05:33 · Score: 5, Informative

Pointy-Haired Boss. it's a dilbert reference.
RTFA by Lane.exe · 2003-09-02 05:33 · Score: 5, Informative

From the first paragraph:
for the first time will include tools for restricting access to documents created with the software. Office workers can specify who can read or alter a spreadsheet, block it from copying or printing, and set an expiration date.
Users get to set it. It's not automatic.

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IAALS.
Do some research everyone! by merlin_jim · 2003-09-02 06:26 · Score: 5, Informative

Number one most important feature of this that it seems noone is getting:

This is just Public Key Cryptography based on open and documented standards!

How do I know? I was there when it was announced. In early June at TechEd 2003 in Dallas Texas. Some Korean VP of Verisign showed it off. His accent gave it a very scary "All your base are belong to us" kind of feel, but there it is.

Here's the press release from that day:

http://www.verisign.com/corporate/news/2003/pr_2 00 30603b.html

Please read this before you spout off one more cockeyed comment on how Microsoft is evil cause you won't be able to read this on the plane or how it's proprietary and noone will ever understand it or work with it ever again.

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I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
Yet more alarmist FUD by earache · 2003-09-02 07:45 · Score: 5, Informative

You guys even bother reading the article at all?

The technology is designed to enable secure document transfer between trusted parties. For instance, documents containing trade secrets or engineering specs for a company's latest greatest apps. The creator of the document can secure it so only specified people can read it, limiting potential leaks outside of the company, or the document falling into the wrong hands.

It is not enabled by default and it requires an internal infrastructure to implement (Windows Server 2003 with Windows Rights Management) so the average joe blow isn't going to even be able to use it.

As for "competing products" not being able to read these secured documents, well that's the whole point right? If you're publishing secure documents, you're securing them for a reason, and you're only going to want those who can read it to read it.

There could be an argument for Microsoft to publish an open standard for interoperation, but this is America, not a socialist state, so that argument is a little weak.

Personally, I think this is a cool feature, and one I'm personally going to be using for my day to day work.
The submitter didn't RTFA by EmagGeek · 2003-09-02 10:23 · Score: 5, Informative

Probably redundant... but here goes...

According to the article, it is not the default behavior for O2K3 to use Information Rights Management. In fact, in order for Office to lock a document, there has to be a Win2K3 Server running the rights manager suite somewhere on the LAN...

Nothing to see here... move along...