"Incompatible anticopying technologies known as digital rights management (DRM) are being applied to everything from music files to Microsoft Word documents, and the lack of rules that can make these schemes work together is increasingly prompting calls for a standards revolution.

The problem, critics say, is that companies can all too easily turn DRM into a powerful tool for locking customers into proprietary technologies.

For example, files users purchase through Apple's iTunes music store won't work with portable music players other than the company's own iPod device.
More broadly, some worry that Microsoft's new Office suite of software, and its ability to prevent unauthorized distribution of e-mail or Word files, will lock the business world even more deeply into using Office, since other programs might not be able to read the locked files.

A recent report from a panel of security experts warned against this trend, saying that using content protection to tie users to Microsoft Office and Windows could create damaging security risks.”

Read the full story here.

[via The Big Hack]

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