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Open Source DRM Solutions?
Feint writes "I'm working on an business platform for inter-company collaboration based on an open source software stack. As part of that platform I would like to integrate some sort of digital rights management for the documents in the system. The vast majority of articles about DRM are focused how good or evil it is to apply DRM to digital music or video. I haven't seen many articles address open source solutions for protecting business data like CAD / MS Office / PDF / etc. documents, which is a real need in business today. Can the Slashdot readership suggest some open source DRM offerings other than the Sun DReaM initiative, which hasn't had a release since Jan. 2007?"
Public key cryptography. It won't protect work from being copied, but that's an endless battle anyways until the trusted computing platform is mainstream.
No.
I'm sure some of us could, but why would we want to? Design our own prison? Encumber data? Stop whistleblowers?
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
Hey, Guys! I want some help too!
Do we have open-source Tasers? I'm also after open-source software to rig voting machines.
I look in freshmeat and SourceForge - but they mostly seem to be oriented to freeing people, not locking 'em up.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Passwords can be applied in any number of ways. You can base it on pgp keys, if you want to limit the specific people who have access to the documents; or, you can do a one-size-fits-all solution, just applying a password to a file, and giving that password to those who need access.
Nemilar http://www.techthrob.com - Visit Me!
If it's open source, you can change it thus disabling any protection it might offer unless it's some hardware-backed signing. The system isn't designed for it either, just removing all the ways you could dump the information anyway would be big job. Just get Vista if you want an end-to-end DRM stack. In short, you want to give someone the DRM'd file, the instrcutions on how the DRM works and still want them to be unable to decode it on their own, bypassing any DRM? Not going to happen.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
You need to go find out what DRM is.
DRM is about Alice/Bob/Eve cryptography where Bob and Eve are the same person. All DRM tries to work by hiding the Implementation - Universally, it fails.
Open source is about revealing the implementation.
OpenDRM. Just say Huh?!
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
DRM is security through obscurity. If you have the code, you can break any DRM, so there's no point in developing open source DRM. It's also why all DRM eventually fails.
Use encryption if you want safety. But you still can't prevent the people who have legitimate access from doing whatever they want to the documents.
I think the systems you're after are called Document Management Systems, like you'd find used for medical records under HIPAA.
The only open source system I am aware is OpenKM[http://www.openkm.com/].
Most people smart enough to program such a thing are also smart enough to know it can never work. People who do create/sell/push drm solutions are selling snake oil.
Your best bet is to use PGP and simply encrypt your data, and trade public keys with your intended recipients. And plan ahead - once someone can see it, assume they can always see it. The whole "revoking a key" bit is the snake oil part of DRM.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
For all those who are saying "open source DRM" is an oxymoron, they should have a look at OpenIPMP, which is an open-source DRM solution for video formats. So there is a precedent for this kind of thing, although it may not be widely adopted.
Nemilar http://www.techthrob.com - Visit Me!
How about trusting the people you give documents to?
Public key is the way to go. Place the keys on smart cards or smart USB keys. Encrypt files individually, not just as volumes. OK, it'll be a pain in the ass. Maybe PGP Enterprise will help?
"DRM" is not the search term you want, though, and it is in fact not what you want for business documents. You just want to set up a public-key infrastructure (PKI) and make sure people protect their private keys. This can be done by OpenPGP, GnuPG, etc.
DRM makes it hard for people to leak a file. It does not spend very much effort, if any, on authenticating the initial owner of the file (for example, anyone who picks up a DVD can play it, although they can't copy it to a new DVD). In a business environment, you're usually far more worried about authenticating the file's recipient and making sure the original does not accidentally reach anyone else's computer, than about preventing a cooperative person from intentionally leaking the file. (In most cases, you do want to permit them to print, copy-and-paste, etc. the document. These would all be prevented by DRM because they all make it easy to leak the file.)
The other failing of DRM, as I'm sure you've seen discussed, is that it's crackable by mere cleverness. If you're going to permit someone to view a file on screen (or hear an audio clip over headphones), you can always take a screenshot (or recording) and leak that. HDCP and so forth make the screenshot harder, but nothing prevents you from pointing a camera at the TV. It will be low quality but it will be a leak. PKI, on the other hand, is only crackable by brute-force searches of the key space, or (unlikely though possible) sufficiently smart mathematicians.
DRM depends on proprietary software. You are encrypting a file, then giving the user the key to decode it, while telling the program in question to decode the file, but only allow it to be used in one of a few ways (eg. display PDF, but don't print).
Such a system is untenable with proprietary software (just need to find the right memory address), and absolutely impossible with open source software, as you can simply remove the line in the program that tells it what actions not to allow. (See xpdf). With proprietary DRM systems, the companies just hope it's difficult enough to decipher the compiled code of the proprietary programs, that it takes a while before someone finds the right spots in memory to probe/change, and publishes the details... Then, they make trivial changes to the DRM system, and call it a new, "fixed" version that everyone should start using quickly (before someone figures it out).
The only thing DRM can do effectively, is to prevent the first opening of the file. After you send that first key (eg. via server), no matter what the DRM involved, the user can (trivially) strip the DRM off, and do whatever they want with the unencrypted file.
If that is what you want... I would suggest using public-key encryption to protect the file instead of a commercial "DRM" system. Either PGP or SSL (keys in combination with a password) can make absolutely sure only the intended recipient can make use of the file, even if others obtain copies of it. If you are expecting any more control over what others do with the file, you are simply denying reality.
All that said, here is one open source DRM system: http://www.sidespace.com/products/oggs/
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
We have had this discussion. There is no legitimate use for DRM. It has no right to exist. I have told people this before. DRM does not improve the security of corporate networks. Thats not what it is meant to do. DRM has just one purpose. to deprive people of the right to use the computers they own as they see fit. Securing documents and sensitive company data is to use good security practices. IPSec, Kerberos, PKI, that kind of thing.
Point. Learn good computer security practices.
I want DRM to dissappear from this world forever/
Here's what's become my business-side take on DRM: don't bother.
DRM systems set the bar too high for honest users who just need to get some work done, and too low for malicious users.
Corporate espionage in mind? Just make screen-captures. That won't work? Digital camera, anyone?
You can't make it work, principally because there's no way to both show and not show the same document to an end user. The security is only as good as your trusted users are.
You can also appeal to reason on financial grounds: the Hollywood studios are extremely motivated to make DRM work, have pored in millions and haven't hit on anything at all that prevents piracy.
If they can't do it, you probably can't either, and should probably focus on differentiating your content by making it sticky and extremely easy to use.
There's basically two kinds of DRM in the world: DRM that's been broken and DRM that no one has cared to break.
So, that said, here's some python DRM you can use which I am releasing into the public domain:
(replace _ with spaces)
Repton.
They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
Cory Doctorow was been over this a couple of years ago when Sun came up with the (I'm guessing abandoned) idea of an Open Source DRM. Here, go read why it's oxymoronic: DRM != SSL
Any protection scheme where your customer and your attacker are the same party, doomed to failure, IMO.
Do not buy any DRM-encumbered products. Make a statement about this by not participating.
You should also check out http://www.alfresco.com/. It was started by some of the founders of Documentum and Interwoven. It does some interesting Enterprise Content Management foo, which may be of use to you.
Why would anyone want to defer from working on their open source poison that causes slow-and-painful death for cute puppies?
Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.
... I suggest you put your wallet back in your pocket, and don't spend any more money on consultants, software, or IT staff hours spent configuring the free and non-free stuff in furtherance of your goals.
Instead you should save your money and hire a lawyer instead who will draft up NDAs for you to have people sign in order to protect those documents/secrets you want tightly controlled.
Technical solutions will not cut it. They never will. You are throwing your money away.
Hire a lawyer, and only give the documents to people who ABSOLUTELY need it and is worth the time to get contracts involved with.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
can we produce a black whiteness?
can we produce a filled emptyness?
can we produce a hard softness?
can we produce a rich poverty?
can we produce an Open DRM?
err... not really?
In business there are things like trade secrets, documents, drawings and the like that you have to distribute to a jobber or some other outside entity to accomplish a task, but you really only want the outside entity to have them for the amount of time that they actually need them to get a task completed.
Typically this has been accomplished via NDA's or other legal agreements. It appears that in some instances they want more then a "promise" to destroy the information when it is no longer useful for the legitimate contracted purpose. Sort of like the old "This tape will self destruct in 10 seconds" gag from mission impossible.
The problem is that it really cannot be accomplished. You can use PGP or IronKey (tm) as others have suggested but that only prevents the material from being easily viewed by 3rd parties and does not address the "self destruct" desire.
I really cannot think of a way to make that happen. Every method that I can think of requires the destruct method to either be built into the data ( as a code block ) but even then something has to execute that code, and that is simply worked around.
It basically has to come down to trust. Either you trust the outside entities that you deal with or you don't. When I was in the military I had access to classified materials, and I was looked over from front to back top to bottom, my friends and neighbors were interviewed as well as my Principal from High School.
Sadly, I think the last 8 years of the current administration have re-enforced the notion of mistrust and it has found its way deep into the culture of corporate America.
Hey KID! Yeah you, get the fuck off my lawn!
If the hardware signing is not controlled by the user, it's generally not considered Free Software, although it may well be open source.
But that is pretty much the only way to give someone the source, but not the content -- assuming you are trying to protect content. If you are trying to prevent people from copying your code, then you completely missed the point of "open source".
I would very much like to see a followup article, or a clarification, or some comment by the guy who made this post, to find out just what the living Hades he was thinking to come up with this idea. This is even worse than the last Ask Slashdot, where the guy was asking how to run a consolidated, distributed network -- also a contradiction in terms, except in a very limited context (something like Coda for a distributed FS, so there's no "servers")...
Maybe we're missing some context here? Because I'm going to have to cry if this is actually, say, an MBA who thinks "Open Source" is a good idea because he gets free labor and "DRM" is good because they need to "protect their rights," and why can't he have both?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Make absolutely certain the drawings being used on the production floor are the correct revision. I mean on terminals on the line. And make sure no one printed a copy for "convenience".
I.E. - Engineers and CAD designers are the only ones that can see pre-production drawings. Pre-production drawings are not accessible from line terminals, only engineering or conference room workstations. Line terminals can not print drawings, though they can print some other things. Line terminals and assembly people can't even open non-production documents.
Considering many electronics assembly shops have people on staff that used to (like, last week) work for a competitor the possibility of moles in real. So, prevent documents from being opened by non-authorized personnel. Prevent drawings from being printed, copied to removable media, etc.
I've had to deal with all of that in a manufacturing environment.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
If you're using systems with TCPA chips, then check out this overview and IBM's examples.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Look, get DRM out of your head - I have yet to find a place for it, and I've only been in IT for 25 years, of which 15 in security. I have seen dongles (still in use in the CAD industry), I have seen floppy disks with laser holes (bypassed by TSRs), I have seen media with altered parameters (which neededs special drives: say hello to hardware maintenance hell), I have seen registration schemes..
You should really first see if the disadvantages outweigh the benefits, from what I read you're simply after some method to protect information from disclosure. Well, encrypt it. Just don't use any DRM related solution because you're inflicting a serial chain of single points of failures on your business, and it'll screw any backup and recovery strategy as well. Just don't. You really don't know just how much trouble you're heading for.
Insert
OK, I think I need to toss a post out (to the wolves!) because the way I make my living is deeply enmeshed in the whole DRM chaos. I've got an unusual approach (well- for the business I'm in) and it's worth explaining how it specifically works because it violates some assumptions and makes others.
;) )
I make a living selling copyable software which has no DRM or copy protection, so I'm taking a bunch of time to explain how I'm doing that in the hopes Slashdot minds will find it interesting. This isn't hypothetical, it pays my bills. I'm betting it will continue to do so...
The software is mostly plugins for Logic etc. (Audio Unit format) but I'm also getting some other tools together like an animation program. This isn't free software- I'll talk pretty freely about how I do what I do but I don't distribute the code, and I pick some software products to give away at no cost and other products to sell, never for more than $60 before VAT etc. (lots of my sales are overseas, I'm in the USA)
Almost every (every?) commercial plug-in maker uses DRM, sometimes insanely intrusive stuff. There's stuff that has to dial home in order to be 'authorized' and you only get 3 or 4 goes before it is shut off, there's stuff that uses one of several dongles (iLok is the most common but there are others), etc.
I use NOTHING- once you have the plugin, I expect you to use it, back it up for safe keeping, use it on whichever computers you need it, including the new Logic nodes for DAW clustering that Apple's come up with. There isn't a line of code in there to take the plugin away from you, ever. It's a matter of principle.
At the same time, I expect people not to copy these to their friends, put them on websites, anything like that. You are only supposed to get them from me. It's done through a variation on DRM by Kagi Shareware, who are my store-runners: they have a thing they'd like to see people use more, called Kagi's Digital Download Service. This could be open source if people wanted one like it- how it works is, a purchaser is given a temporary download URL. It's open for X downloads or X days and then it's no longer valid, so if someone posted one of these somewhere it would go dead quickly. The neat thing is, if there's a problem and someone emails me I can check my copies of the Kagi receipts, and see if a sale went through. If it did- the reply email contains a copy of the thing they bought- I don't have to wait for Kagi's systems to be fixed, because the customer only needs the plugin, not access to some authorization server.
This brings me to my point about DRM, one I take very seriously- I've been thinking about this for some time having been a Slashdotter from way back. (that's easily proved, at any rate
There are two ways you can get a person to do something- push them or entice them. DRM is strictly push-ville. The big assumption you make there is that the enticement is basically infinite- the person MUST buy your thing, or steal it, so it's all about getting really tough with them to compel them not to steal it.
I make a different assumption, and it's paying my mortgage. I may not be putting out lots of open source code (though anyone from an OSS project wishing audio tips is welcome to talk with me endlessly) but I assume the person must CHOOSE to buy your thing or steal it.
No matter who it is, they still must choose. It doesn't matter if they're 14, have never bought something before, and have found my stuff on an FTP site somewhere- even if the choice seems compellingly obvious, people CHOOSE to copy stuff that's not intended to be copied. (to use the non-thief terminology)
I get to make choices as well. For instance, current law is very friendly to me talking to such an FTP site and telling them, please remove those files now. It's easy to monitor, they'd have no real leg to stand on, and I'd be entitled to want that done since it's my stuff.
The site itself CHOOSES to include my stuff (if they can get it) or not to bother- or