Digital Identity

Features of DRM

Digital rights management is, of course, about more than just protecting music and movies. DRM is a technology all of us would like to use in certain circumstances. For example, when I send my Social Security Number to my bank, I'd like to be able to control how it is used. As another example, wouldn't it be nice to be able to send your credit card number to an online merchant and attach specific rights to it: the right to use it to facilitate a single purchase and not be stored or transferred. All of us have digital information that we'd like to be able to send to someone else without giving them unlimited rights.

SealedMedia, a DRM vendor, lists some important features that DRM systems should have to be effective.

• Persistent security, wherever the digital resource exists

• Separation of right of access from the information itself

• Management of discrete rights (viewing, printing, editing, print-screen)

• Dynamic allocation and withdrawal of rights

• Support for both online and offline work

• Audit trail of actions and activities performed on the document

• Support for multiple common document formats using the same security tools

• Simple integration with existing workflow and applications

• Integration with document/content management systems

A perfect DRM system with all of these features does not exist. You will likely have to prioritize these properties for your particular application and evaluate solutions on that basis. The next section describes a reference architecture that shows ...