Rights Management Add-on for Internet Explorer beta can now be downloaded for Windows 2000 Server Pack 3, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6.0.
Microsoft has touted the add-on as a means for users of legacy versions of Office to access Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook content and documents in the next version of its desktop productivity suite due late this summer.
Office 2003 will implement a system called Information Rights Management (IRM). IRM is itself an implementation of Windows Rights Management Services (RMS), Microsoft’s own take on the evolving industry concept of DRM.
Microsoft’s web site said yesterday the add-on allows document authors, web site authors and creators of web-based applications to deliver information protected by a set of permissions. This would protect the information in transit and after it is received.
Users will be able to read but not modify or forward such content without authorization, according to Microsoft.
Microsoft has justified RMS and IRM as a means to protect authors’ intellectual property (IP), but the company has generated widespread concern over its potential ability to control content using these new technologies.
Additionally, IRM poses an administrative headache for companies who must manage groups of users running different copies of Office.
Microsoft has not said how the final add-on will eventually ship with a future version of IE, but if it does remain an add-in then organizations will have to ensure they are compliant with yet another software patch from Microsoft.
Users are already deluged by Microsoft with a series of security add-ins and patches for Windows, which – if not implemented – have led users to suffer from viruses such as Slammer.
Source: Computerwire
