A problem with Microsoft’s RMS (Rights Management Services) prevented Office users from viewing their own files. The problem only affected Microsoft Office 2003, not Office 2007.
The TechNet bulletin seemed to be phrased in a strange way:
Starting on December 11, 2009, customers using Office 2003 will not be able to open Office 2003 documents protected with the Rights Management Service (RMS) or save Office 2003 documents protected with RMS.
It’s as if they already knew of the problem.
What seems to have happened is that a digital certificate used to validate access expired. RMS allows companies to specify what a person who receives a file can do with it. It relies on being able to access the Internet to validate key and certificate information.
Microsoft released a hotfix to remedy the problem.
Comments
It looks like companies who relied on onerous digital restrictions were hoist by their own petard. I’d say it’s better to have fully open files and file formats which you can access without any third-party having anything to do with the process.
Resources
Blog post at Technologizer
Discussion at Slashdot
TechNet bulletin
Hotfix
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