Rights management central to Microsoft future

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 9 May 2003 at 15:29

Microsoft plans to extend its Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to both its Office suite of business software and its market leading Web browser, Internet Explorer.

In an email sent to customers, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer argues that the full potential of computer technology will not be realised, 'because of concerns about illegal use of digital information, about confidentiality and about privacy.'

'Businesses don't exchange digital information with customers and partners as freely as they might,' he continues, 'because they fear it could fall into the wrong hands'.

Microsoft has already implemented DRM within the Windows Media Player, and the technology is already used by music and video download services, such as Pressplay and and Cinema Now, to prevent the illegal copying and dissemination of downloaded material.

Now, Ballmer says, DRM will be extended to core Microsoft products. A security service for Windows Server 2003, called Microsoft Windows Rights Management Services, will be released this year to, 'help customers protect sensitive Web content, documents and email. Embedded within the data, rights management will persist wherever it goes.

Using the forthcoming Office 2003, users will be able to designate who can open a document or email, and what they can do with it. A rights management add-on for Internet Explorer will provide similar protection for Web content. Software developers will be able to incorporate Windows Rights Management into their own applications.

'Effective rights management,' says Ballmer, 'will help improve the efficiency of information flows, enhancing productivity and the quality of services across the economy.'

Technologies that accomplish effective rights management do, of course, already exist, notably Adobe's PDF. Read, write, copy and viewing privileges can all be built into PDF files, with the added attraction that they can be read independent of any platform or application. The concern, given Microsoft's record in the past, is that its DRM technology will be dependent upon its won applications. Anyone needing access to protected data, will require a copy of Office, will have to use Internet Explore to read Web sites.

On this, Ballmer's email is silent. But unless Microsoft's DRM is an open technology - and let's assume that is not going to be the case - it could find itself back in the courts, accused yet again of anti-competitive practices.