Digitivity » Rights Managements Services http://digitivity.org The Digital Productivity Blog Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:34:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Microsoft Rights Management Locks Users Out of Their Own Files http://digitivity.org/374/microsoft-rights-management-lock-users-out-of-their-own-files http://digitivity.org/374/microsoft-rights-management-lock-users-out-of-their-own-files#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:57:13 +0000 Digitivity http://www.digitivity.org/?p=374 Posted in Digital RightsWindows

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 [...] Related posts:
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]]> 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

Related posts:

  1. How Microsoft Helps the Government Spy on You
  2. Microsoft (Finally) Wants You to Ditch IE6
  3. WikiLeaks Archive of Climategate CRU E-Mail Files

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