Will Microsoft’s Information Rights Management (IRM) technology, which gives end-users DRM capabilities of their own, prove to be a good thing or a bad thing? My recent column on IRM (http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2003/9/25/101437/094) found readers divided on that question.
Many readers felt IRM’s only purpose was to lock business users into Microsoft software. "Although you hint at the problem, I think you gave short shrift to one of the most egregious aspects of this software: no compatibility with non-Microsoft mail readers," wrote one reader. "So, if you're using something other than Outlook (perhaps because you don't want to join the worm-of-the-month club), or you read your e-mail on a non-Windows operating system, you'll receive an IRM-protected message as an essentially empty message with an encrypted attachment. I think we can expect that it will become increasingly difficult for users NOT to send e-mail with IRM protection, thus 'encouraging' recipients to become IRM-enabled. Sort of like the 'bugs' that made it so difficult for Word 97 users to exchange documents with Word 95 users."
But a number of readers felt the idea of giving the end-user the ability to embed usage restrictions in their documents and e-mails very attractive. "As a concept, I think it is natural and desirable for anyone to be able to control content flow," wrote another reader. "Businesses, believe me, want this. Will Microsoft's implementation have bugs and be circumvented? Sure, but you're dogging the concept for its overall purpose. It will stop most people from stealing copyrighted or confidential material and that's a good thing. Open source and freeware will still flourish in their model. I think giving people more control over what they make will make data flourish, not hide."
Many were worried though about how rights management technologies could spell the end for an open Internet. "As I dwell on this, I realize that an open communication medium such as the Internet may have arrived before its time," wrote a pensive reader. "We as a race are too caught up in our own silly games to even consider ethical behavior; thus, the need for tech like this. I find it sad that one of our best achievements responsible for so much good is going to get trashed so that a select few can continue to do their shady dealings at our collective expense. Don't they have enough money to just meet somewhere and talk about it while leaving the rest of us mostly honest people alone?"
11:22:38 AM 
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