Microsoft's digital rights management service for
Windows Server 2003 may seem like the answer to a government
minister's prayer, but for the rest of us the implications are not
so good, says Simon Moores.
I could almost imagine them tabling a vote of thanks at
this week’s Cabinet meeting at No 10. There isn’t much in the way
of good news around for ministers this month, but at least the
preoccupation with Iraq has interrupted the regular leaking of
memos which led to the resignations of Steven Byers and Estelle
Morris.
This week’s hero isn’t Michael Portillo, it’s Microsoft, and no,
the company hasn’t decided to give its software away to government
for free. It’s even better than that if you happen to be a senior
civil servant or a minister, because Microsoft has announced a new
digital rights management service for Windows Server 2003
(WS2003).
Why, you ask, is this a reason for Sir Humphrey Appleby to
celebrate? Because WS2003, in conjunction with a "lock box" - a
policy appliance that is kept locked away - places "persistent
protection" into any office document and rights management
technology. According to Microsoft, this "enables businesses to
protect the information they most worry might leak".
Just before Christmas, there was an embarrassing leak of a
Foreign & Commonwealth Office document to US-based website
Cryptome.org. A Sunday newspaper, which makes a point of watching
Cryptome for salacious gossip, picked up a confidential memo that
described the visit of Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, to
London and what was discussed between our two governments over
dinner.
Of course, there was the normal polite chat about the price of
vodka and weapons of mass destruction, but there was more
interesting detail that I’m not at liberty to divulge. However,
Microsoft’s new digital Rights Management Server (RMS), which sits
behind its Office products, could very soon make it virtually
impossible for a document to leak, short of taking a photograph of
the screen.
Documents can really become "eyes only", depending on the policy
hidden in the lock box and controlled by the RMS Server. Documents
can even expire after a given time period, so short of a discovery
demand under the Freedom of Information Act or other legislation,
embarrassing or sensitive information will, in future, have a
sell-by date. This measure could prove ideal for the Inland
Revenue, which appears to be losing its laptops faster than it can
buy them.
Focusing on the technical detail, Microsoft points out that the
"Windows Rights Management Services can be used to control
forwarding, copying and printing, as well as establishing
time-based expiration rules. In addition, enterprises can enforce
policy broadly and reliably by centrally delivering templates that
automate the process - for example, making the policy around what
constitutes "company confidential" uniform and easy to manage.
So there you have it, the end of leaking as we know it, and with
it a mix of both good and bad news for the rest of us. The good
news is of course that "confidential" will mean just that, and the
bad news? Leaking is a necessary part of our political process, as
there’s always a danger of being found out; remember Matrix
Churchill and Stephen Byers?
Further down the line, DRM will lead to a world where free and
fair use of information, such as photocopying, disappears
altogether and is replaced either by blanket confidentiality or the
arrival of a universal micropayment system, controlled by a
mechanism that looks vaguely like Passport.
I’m in two minds about digital rights management. On the one
hand, the arrival of the internet threw confidentiality out of the
window, but on the other hand, DRM is leading us in a direction
where information has a value - tightly controlled, directed and no
longer free. In other words, in direct contradiction to the open
principle of the internet. So while Microsoft’s introduction of DRM
to Office was inevitable and, even, sensible, I wonder where it
will lead us next?
What do you think?
Is digital rights management at odds with the intrinsically open
nature of the web?
Tell us in an e-mail >> CW360.com
reserves the right to edit and publish answers on the Web site.
Please state if your answer is not for
publication.
ZentelligenceSetting the world to rights with the collected thoughts and
opinions of the futurist writer, broadcaster and Computer Weekly
columnist Simon Moores.