Vitrium Systems

I read the article  posted on April 20th, 2009 – “Who benefits from DRM?”

While I agree with the article in principle, I’m not convinced that DRM is all “bad.”  I do, however, believe the underlying philosophy behind DRM and how DRM solutions are sold is seriously flawed.

The Facts:

• Publishers and distributors of electronic content have the right to protect their IP and their profits.
• Readers of electronic content have the right to own what they purchase and enjoy a hassle-free experience.

The Problem:

• The “all-or-nothing” approach to DRM.
• The lack of thought leadership in this space.
• The dishonesty and lack of disclosure.

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For those of us who build software, creating a new software product is usually fun and exciting. There are new challenges, the opportunity to use new tools and techniques, and there is a special thrill of seeing something work for the first time. But unless you have the luxury of building software solely for your own entertainment, once you’ve got that great new product built, you have to figure out how to get it to your customers. At Vitrium, much of the software that we build is web-based, so the issue of delivering software to our users is really just one of ensuring browser compatibility.

But if you work at a company that delivers software for the desktop, you typically have to build an installer — a second piece of software whose job is to get your actual software successfully running on the users’ machines. There is no joy in writing in installers. I’ve worked at companies where we had to build installers for our software, and it’s amazing how much time and effort was required to build and maintain them.

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For those of us who build software, creating a new software product is usually fun and exciting. There are new challenges, the opportunity to use new tools and techniques, and there is a special thrill of seeing something work for the first time. But unless you have the luxury of building software solely for your own entertainment, once you’ve got that great new product built, you have to figure out how to get it to your customers. At Vitrium, much of the software that we build is web-based, so the issue of delivering software to our users is really just one of ensuring browser compatibility.

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Vitrium has made significant traction in the digital rights management (DRM) space with protectedpdf and the benefits of its new SaaS version are clear. Cadalyst Magazine’s Kenneth Wong had the opportunity to preview SBE at the Adobe Max Show in San Francisco last November and immediately marveled about not needing to own or install any software. “You implement the security features you want — disabling printing and copying , for example — by uploading your file to the protectedpdf portal, specifying the rights you want to grant, then downloading the tagged file back to your own local drive,” he explains.

Perhaps the coolest feature, “you can modify or revoke the rights previously granted after the document has been published and distributed,” notes Wong. SBE features include: auto-unlock files; modify and revoke reader permissions; limit the number of computers a reader may access documents from; disable text copying and document printing; display customized system data when printed or displayed onscreen; and even protect multiple PDFs simultaneously or automate the protection process.

This DRM solution is a SaaS offering built on the Microsoft SharePoint platform is great news for all Microsoft SharePoint users who have PDF’s they would like to protect from unauthorized redistribution.

If PDF is your preferred medium for issuing requests for quotes (RFQs) and requests for proposals (RFPs), you can now remotely control what the recipients can and cannot do with the file you send.  Check out the article, An Argument for SaaS: A look at on-demand project management and digital rights management services. Kenneth Wong showcases protectedpdf’s new Small Business Edition in Cadalyst Magazine!

A lot of people hate DRM. This can be a hard fact to face up to for those of us who happen to make a living in the Digital Rights Management software industry. If we’re going to provide our clients and their paying customers with DRM technology that really works, we will have to face up to the antipathy many people feel towards DRM.

The way I see it, that attitude is both instructive and unnecessary. That is to say, if more people in the DRM industry listened to their detractors, those detractors would have far fewer reasons to complain. While DRM companies and anti-DRM commentators may seem to have little common ground, there are some points we can all agree on.

For me, the key area of agreement is that a lot of DRM software makes life unnecessarily hard for legitimate users. In trying to protect their intellectual property rights and revenues, digital content providers often make access to content significantly more complex for their loyal, paying customers.

It should be the first rule of DRM that good content protection software doesn’t alienate legitimate users. Vitrium’s experience suggests that content providers already know this. It’s time for the DRM industry to catch on and start creating solutions that provide value to content providers and consumers alike.

By Tim Goral, University Business Magazine

One major problem that Universities still must grapple with is protecting copyrighted material passed onto third parties. Different Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions are available, but provide different benefits depending on a particular organization’s requirements. Narayan Sainaney, previous president of Vitrium Systems, makes it clear that DRM solutions must take into account not only the publisher’s needs, but also the reader’s.

To read the article, go to – All Rights Reserved – IHEs Explore New Ways to Protect Intellectual Property