Digital Rights 2.0 – Protecting Documents in a Digital Age

In this age of advanced information technology, Digital Rights Management (DRM) is seen as one of the greatest challenges for publishers and litigation document support companies across the United States.

The traditional rights management of hard copy documents have been easy for attorneys and publishers to manage. But the ease at which digital file formats flow over the Internet allows for some significant breaches in copyright law.

Back in the Day: DRM and Gaming

Before electronic publishing, the administration of DRM used to focus on encryption and security as a primary means of solving the problem of unauthorized software copying. Locking software content and limiting the distribution of materials only to those who paid for it was easy. But traditional DRM limits the real and much broader capabilities of today’s data and legal document management.

Then came the second-generation of DRM which covered the description, identification, protection, trading, monitoring and tracking of all forms of copyrighting. DRM 2.0 also includes management of rights holders relationships. This advance had a great advantage in protecting copyrighted material, especially for products and corporate intellectual properties.

Material & Those Who View It

When it comes to designing and implementing the DRM systems, there are two critical elements. The first is the Functional Architecture, covering the high-level modules or components of a DRM system, providing a perfect end-to-end management of rights. Second is critical architecture – also known as the Information Architecture – which extends to the entities that have access to a DRM system.

The technical controls on the general reproduction and usage of software have been sporadically used since 1970s, the generic term “DRM” typically means the usage of these measure to gain control of artistic or literary content. With the advent of DRM technologies, publishers can enforce strict access policies which would not only disallow copyright infringements, but also help prevent lawful fair use of copyrighted works, or use of constraints on non-copyrighted works that are meant for distribution; few examples include the placement of DRM on certain public-domain or open-licensed e-books, or DRM to be included in the consumer electronic devices.

How the iPod Changed DRM

The most commonly used industry of Digital Rights Management is at work within the entertainment industry (e.g., film and recording). You could find many online music stores, like Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store, as well as many e-book publishers, imposing DRM on their customers. It is helping their industry to protect documents and other related files. We can find in recent years, that a large number of television producers have had also imposed DRM mandates on consumer electronic devices, so as to control access to the freely-broadcasted content of their own shows.

From the many available document viewing technologies, the Adeptol Document Viewer is considered to be one of the best in the medical field. Its module for Digital Rights Management helps you to gain control of your documents even while sharing it to others in whatever way. An example of this type of file is the use of DICOM scanning. You can protect documents covered under HIPAA regulations using ADV, while maintaining the ability to generate many industry specific files like the DICOM Viewer.

File Flexibility

As for the engineering and architecture fields, AutoCAD Viewers can work independently as a viewer for AutoCAD, TIFF & PDF files and would allow you to gain control of your AutoCAD drawing, while also maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of these documents while sharing them over web. DICOM Viewers helps you to process detailed DICOM images very easily in a way that’s meant for radiologists to study and analyze.