I'd Love To Share My Title, But The DRM Won't Let Me

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the think-twice dept

Even if the entertainment industry could make a case that DRM prevents piracy (it doesn’t), there’s no question that insisting on the use of DRM has created an unpleasant situation for consumers, fraught with confusion and incompatibility. In light of this, companies should probably think very hard about how they implement DRM-like solutions on company documents. There’s obviously a need to restrict who gets access to important documents. There are several solutions, for example, that attempt to ensure that only the intended recipient of an email can read the message, and the ongoing data leaks demonstrate the need for better data handling, and possibly more encryption. There is of course the use of .pdf files, also, which attempt to impose restrictions on the use of documents. Clearly, in some instances, it makes sense to heavily lock down a document, like when it’s meant for very few people, but to aggressively take an across-the-board DRM approach runs the risk diminishing productivity, by making things like collaboration and corporate search more difficult. Put another way, would anyone like to see knowledge exchange hamstrung the same way that music is? Unfortunately, since there are still many out there who think that DRM is a solution to preventing piracy, many will be convinced that it is the answer to ensuring the integrity and privacy of documents.