Why Digital Rights Management Gets a Bad Wrap
For many IT departments and business users, DRM has become a four-letter word. Enterprise digital rights management (DRM) has a bad reputation as a hard-to-use technology that never quite works right. DRM typically refers to access control systems used to restrict access to proprietary or sensitive materials. In practice, this usually means some sort of mechanism that enables the content’s administrator to restrict usage of a file even after if it’s been transferred to a user.
Enterprises often struggle with DRM because they’ve employed legacy systems that are hard to set up and administer. Seldom convenient to the end user, most digital rights management platforms force any would-be users to effectively become technicians, compelling them to understand all the nuanced details and controls. And that’s just to set the permissions on a file for sharing. Parties who are invited to access a DRM-protected file often have to take multiple frustrating steps to consume the content. In short, enterprise DRM is generally a frustrating experience on both sides of the equation.
Limited Use Cases & “IRM” Confusion
Many DRM technologies advertise that they are one-size-fits-all, but in reality they support a limited number of use cases. For example, some firms try to utilize Office 365’s Azure RMS system for managing access for both employees and people outside the organization. In practice, this often forces a rights administrator to make a duplicate copy of files that need to be shared with outside parties, who will then in turn have to create a Microsoft login just to access the file.
Setting up enterprise digital rights management on large quantities of files is often a challenge that has to be done manually with many digital rights management solutions, including most Microsoft Office 365 subscriptions. This can prompt frustrated users to revert back to sending sensitive information via insecure sharing tools like Dropbox or email.
Speaking of file-storage platforms (such as Dropbox and Box), many providers often advertise that they offer “Information Rights Management,” or IRM for short. IRM certainly sounds similar to digital rights management, but before making a decision, be sure to confirm what it actually means. (Also, be sure you understand the other differences between VDRs vs. Dropbox.)
In practice, the term “IRM” is often used by software vendors that limit online access but don’t offer the ability to control content that’s been downloaded. This can be a critical problem for virtual data room (VDR) use cases, since data room users working on M&A deals or financings almost always need to download content during the due diligence process.
Solving the Problem
Fortunately, CapLinked makes it easy to control access to files that need to be shared with outside parties in a way that legacy DRM systems cannot. CapLinked’s Enhanced Rights Management solution, called FileProtect, makes tracking and controlling files easy. FileProtect gives companies control over shared files even after they’ve been downloaded onto a third party’s desktop, and it doesn’t require any special software installation or setup. CapLinked’s FileProtect lets users:
- Share large numbers of files
- Nuanced access controls for different groups
- Generate comprehensive activity reports
And best of all, FileProtect makes it easy to set up, manage, and access shared content. FileProtect users don’t have to become technical experts to share information, and recipients don’t have to jump through endless hoops just to access a file. And the CIO doesn’t have to spend weeks worrying about implementation. Clients can get up and running on CapLinked’s cloud-based technology in under one hour.
Our enhanced solution for digital rights management is just one part of the value proposition that CapLinked offers to clients like Takeda, Hess, Roche, and FTI Consulting. Enterprise users can learn more about how to use CapLinked’s cloud-based platform for information control and risk mitigation.
All of our information control functionality–including enterprise digital rights management–is available through both our web-based application as well the CapLinked API, making CapLinked the most flexible and user-friendly solution on the market today.
Contact us if you’d like to learn more about FileProtect or to explore other ways that CapLinked can help your organization protect content being sent outside your security perimeter.
For more on emerging trends and DRM, like how Caplinked is using VDR and blockchain technology to make data transactions even more secure, stick around on our blog!
