DRM heads to your desktop

[Kooperman]

To Read the Article, go here:

http://news.com.com/2100-7343_3-5194756.html?tag=cd.lede

[Shawn]

It's usually safe enough to reprint the first paragraph.

On the story.... it's a little shivery for the fact that like many other questionable advances, it's presented in a positive light.

[Bombardier]

"If it's intrusive, workers will figure a way to get around it. If it's too easy, the bad guys will figure out ways to get around it."

--George Everhardt,

CEO of Sealed Media

That's the way with any DRM-based content. Of course, there will always be workarounds to DRM. Just look at the "success" of the Apple iTunes music files. There are things such as PlayFair that just gets arouind that protection quickly.

Since corporate change is so hard to implement (people just don't want to change!), then a protection scheme that is non-intrusive is an absolute must.

Instead, they see the moves as bolstering their position with potential customers who don't want to be restricted to working with particular types of documents or authoring applications.

Once again, corporate change only occurs when the people who are being asked to change see a benefit in the change and are actually willing to change. I, myself, despise the adobe .pdf format and it's counterpart the secure DRMed pdf (.spdf).

What security companies don't want to do (or do they? :read this: ) is to block a corporation into using their security format and theirs alone. Thus, restricting the freedoms the corporations have to choose their document types or authoring applications.

I doubt DRM will prevent things from being "leaked" from companies. People always find a way around that.