DRM: Still Hurting Paying Customers The Most
from the the-internet-is-for-opening-client-side-PDFs-apparently dept
Today's Stupid DRM Trick is brought to you by Adobe LiveCycle ES3 and Windows 10.
Starting in August, we started to receive noise from end-users on unable to open DRM protected PDFs, ones that are protected with 2016-17 policy, with the use of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat. Users are mostly facing issue on seeing the below message when opening the PDFs:
Error Message:
"This computer must be connected to the Internet in order to open this document. Your permission to open this document offline has expired. Make sure this computer is connected to the network and the Adobe Experience Manager- Forms Server(Document Security) is running."
or
"This computer must be connected to the network in order to open this document. Your permission to open this document offline has expired. Make sure this computer is connected to the network and the Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management Server is running."
While I can understand some companies might want to prevent unauthorized users from reading PDFs possibly containing sensitive material, the fact that an authorized user's computer has to "phone home" to Adobe to read a PDF generated (and held) by a third party is ridiculous. While password-protection schemes may have their drawbacks, the LiveCycle solution doesn't do much for employees (or students -- LiveCycle is also used for courseware) who might not have access to an internet connection (an unfortunate reality when traveling) but still need access to these documents.
However, this problem isn't completely Adobe's fault (although the DRM's insistence on an internet connection still is). It appears a Windows update is what's preventing LiveCycle from phoning home.
Today, I am unable to access the pdf courseware on my system due to the following error message:
"This computer must be connected to the Internet in order to open this document. Your permission to open this document offline has expired. Make sure this computer is connected to the network and the Adobe Experience Manager- Forms Server(Document Security) is running."
Now, I know my system is connected to the network but I can't figure out what else is wrong. Usually, when I open these pdfs, I get a login prompt but this time, nothing. Please help ASAP. But even after re-downloading the material from aspen portal once again, it still doesn't work. I had installed the Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1511 for x64-based Systems (KB3163018) on 30-06-2016 and the only issue I faced before was that the login prompt was not appearing but I could still open the document. Now, I can't even open the document.
Once again, a Windows update breaks something that was working, leaving end users to clean up the company's mess. Another user had the same update kill their VPN access. And if it's not blocking connections, it's killing webpages accessed through Microsoft's own Edge browser. Fun stuff. These not-all-that-optional cumulative updates tend to create as many problems as they solve and Microsoft's own "help" isn't all that helpful, leading to this sort of exasperated response.
The trouble we have is I have over 200 Windows 10 machines and cannot go to each one and run a tool to view the updates. We use WSUS and I had hoped that there would be a way to split out the Cumulative update so we can disable the two patches I mentioned and then have that push. I have for the time being approved the update for removal in WSUS so it will handle removing it. I am concerned about the other fixes and not having them. Does MSFT QA these updates or are they blaming Cisco on this one?
So, we have two issues, neither of them useful to end users. On Adobe's end, we have a protection scheme that requires an internet connection. That's classic DRM -- phone home, get permission… all well and good (NOT REALLY) until someone needs access to documents but can't because they're not connected to the internet.
Then we have an update that breaks the connection Adobe's DRM relies on, forcing the same problem on users who do have internet access. The problem with DRM schemes like these is that they rely on a bunch of parts that aren't interconnected (Adobe, Windows) but both have to be working properly to get the job done... rather than just, say, open Adobe Reader and be done with it. Subtract an internet connection and Adobe's documents are useless, even to authorized users. Throw a suprisingly volatile Windows update into the mix and end users doing everything right are still screwed. Combine the two and sensitive documents are suddenly so "protected" that a majority of users can't even view them. And, remember, this is a "privilege" corporate customers pay for.
DRM: still mostly useless and still mainly a pain in the ass for paying customers.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: drm, livecycle es3, pdf, windows 10
Companies: adobe, microsoft
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
DRM, Like Microsoft
Bring it on, the People Deserve DRM and I need job security! Win & WIN!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: DRM, Like Microsoft
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
My story
No big deal I thought and grabbed my smartphone and opened up my copy of "Wilderness Survival Guide" only to be presented with some stupid message about how I had to be on the Internet to read it! I mean WTF, the time I need this e-book the most and it will not open!?>!?!?!K!@#
So I yelled as loud as I could "F$*# you DRM!" fortunately some mountain man heard me and guided me to safety.
Thank god my e-book had DRM, without it I'd still be sitting there next to my fire following the books directions of "when lost, stay put, help will come"
Thank you DRM, you saved my life!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Repeat after me: DIGITAL RIGHTS MISMANAGEMENT!
Seriously, folks, not only is copying not theft, but if a reasonably technically able person has seen it or heard it, and wants a copy, they can make a usable version in a baker's dozen different ways, all of them easy!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Repeat after me: DIGITAL RIGHTS MISMANAGEMENT!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Repeat after me: DIGITAL RIGHTS MISMANAGEMENT!
Now that's a great idea! After all, I thought that courts ruled that we had rights (not privileges) to make archival copies, and DRM has stolen much of that from us.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Repeat after me: DIGITAL RIGHTS MISMANAGEMENT!
Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Repeat after me: DIGITAL RIGHTS MISMANAGEMENT!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Repeat after me: DIGITAL RIGHTS MISMANAGEMENT!
Like "artificial scarcity for the digital age".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DRM raises misfortunes
It's extremely hard (not impossible, because there are no impossible things, there is only lack of skills needed to complete the task) to write a DRM scheme that isn't easily crackable or bypassable, does flag pirates AND on top of that never show any false positives (flags legit customers as pirates). So far no one managed to do so.
Given the fact that DRM rarely works and you would have hard time making one that keeps right people in and wrong people out, why even try? Why waste money on such BS systems?
I am a game developer. I am working on a game that I intend to sell. But I have very adamant, anti-DRM and pro-filesharing stance. Why? Because people who'll like my game will buy it even if they pirate it initially.
If they are jerks, they wouldn't buy it anyway just to spite me and if they can't afford it/live in a country where my game was banned for some stupid reason (happened before even to totally innocent games such as Pokemon) and enjoy it, they will spread the word about it which ultimately would lead to legit sales from people who actually can afford it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
College textbooks are ridiculously over-priced. They're intentionally rendered worthless after two years by a new edition with cosmetic changes - to prevent students from selling them to the following year's students. Courseware publishers WANT PDFs that can be killed remotely from a central server at the end of a school year. And they're the ones paying Adobe for products, not the students.
Publishers want to time-limit other books too, but students are the perfect place to debug and establish the practice. (For the same reason that the military wants 18-20-year-olds; they're still used to obeying authority without questioning.)
As for the rest of us, anything Windows 10 does to neuter Adobe Reader's functions beyond reading documents is a GOOD thing.
Adobe now lets creators embed auto-executing programs in PDFs, making it a major vector for ransomware viruses. Combined with the password protected encryption feature, they can't be scanned for viruses at the firewall, mail server or desktop. Just send companies a fake invoice - they're probably already receiving real password-protected PDF invoices - and start demanding bitcoin.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
the other way of looking at things yet again is the way the entertainment industries are trying their damnedest to take control of the internet and use it as their own personal distribution service that everyone else has to get permission to use after paying a fee. if the industries, and that's music, movies, games, publishing etc, etc, are getting Microsoft to spy for them, relaying back what software is installed on each computer, what music and movies are being downloaded/played and what news articles are being read, they can then go to law makers and get even worse laws introduced that remove even more privacy and freedom from the people. no one seems to realise that little by little these industries are taking control of the net and are getting more and more laws in place that force payments to them for doing nothing. there is a new law afoot in the EU that yet again tries to get monies for 'rights holders' out of the likes of YouTube and it wont stop there!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
While Win10 has worse plug and play options than Win7/8, Kernel 4.x for Linux gained support for old and new hardware. This plus the bullshit called MS Answers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I was planning on building a hardware firewall anyway, but the increased spyware in Windows 10 Anniversary Edition helped convince me to do it sooner rather than later.
It's not such a bad OS, but shame about all the damn spyware.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
I think it sucks personally. Win 7 took 20 seconds from button press to desktop... win 10 45 seconds. Oh the humanity!!!! But seriously going from 20 sec boots for a couple months to more than double that time seems forever.
I am seriously looking at Linux to use for daily surfing, email, etc.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Look at all the other software that is available for Linux, and you will only be limited in what you use a computer for by time and interests, rather than your wallet.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Actually skype is pretty badly broken on Linux (for me at least). If it weren't for that and Visual Studio (that doesn't exist on Linux does it?) I think I could switch.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Visual Studio, of course, is not available.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
The version I got from just installing it as normal was a mess. Perhaps it was missing 32 bit dependencies, or maybe the wrong version got installed, I don't know.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
If you really need "Skype" and "Visual Studio", it's harder to switch. If you just want "VoIP" and "development tools", it's relatively trivial by using different applications to achieve the same results. Just bear in mind that if you really are prevented by those specific applications, that's a Microsoft caused problem, not one caused by Linux.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
If you really need "Skype" and "Visual Studio", it's harder to switch. If you just want "VoIP" and "development tools", it's relatively trivial by using different applications to achieve the same results.
I have to have Skype. If there's another viable .NET IDE I could use it.
Just bear in mind that if you really are prevented by those specific applications, that's a Microsoft caused problem, not one caused by Linux.
Microsoft, and my employer.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
That's no reason. I've got around 2500 games on Linux. Around 2000 on steam and 500 more on GOG.com, humble bundle, itch.io and others.
So the reason can only be some "specific game", which neither runs natively on Linux, nor works with wine. Which, for all intents and purposes, is right now Fallout 4 in most cases ;).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Rosetta Stone
I think DRM was first conceived in the Code of Hammurabi -- that is, if Disney lawyers can be believed...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
That sort of thing happens all the time to all modern operating systems and basically means that a programmer has not followed the rules the OS designers have set.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Of course
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Second thought: I remember an old comment from some DRM-enthusiast who tried to convince others that customers want DRM. The argument that customers buy products with DRM is of course complete BS, but it was impossible to make him admit that customers want the products, not the DRM, and that they will buy despite the DRM, not because of them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If they really are buying it because of the DRM then the latter should easily outsell the former, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that that would very much not be the case and they know it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
You must release both on the same platform (popularity).
You must advertise both equally.
You must release both at the same price.
You must release both with the same features.
If, all else being equal, DRM version wins, I might admit many customers are indeed looking forward to them.
However, actions like releasing a game without DRM, but with less features and no DLC on a less popular platform, that would definitely tip the scales.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
First, you get a whole slew of people faced with the fact that if they want the stuff they paid for then it's 'Yarr!' for them, leading to a number of people going the path of the parrot and eyepatch just to regain access to what they've already paid for, and second a good many of those people are going to be asking themselves why they should even pay in the first place if something like that's just going to happen.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
I certainly purchase a lot of games, but the number of AAA games I've purchased in the last 10 years is somewhere south of 1 (unless you include Steam games, without any DRM other than what Steam provides, and even then, I tend to avoid steam games unless I absolutely can't.) The last EA game I purchased, back in the early 2000's, convinced me it just wasn't worth the hassle. I bought the shrink-wrapped game in the store (Command and Conquer Generals), attempted to install it and play it, and on first loading the game, the first five seconds of the campaign, I got the dreaded game over message and the game immediately exited. No matter what I did, it would fail. EA was no help, they blamed everything *but* the DRM in their game, and wouldn't offer a refund or any suggestions on how to get the game to work.
Eventually, looking online, I found the CDFix for the game, and was able to play it (by stripping off the DRM that was killing it.) But the effort left me with a horrible taste in my mouth, a pirate tool allowed me to play the game that I legally purchased. After that, I vowed never again, and that was the last game I purchased in shrink-wrap from a store. (Of course, until GoG game along and I ended up repurchasing most of the games from back then in DRM-free form, I had many more experiences trying to get games I had already purchased to run on newer OSs like Windows 7.)
Never been pro-piracy of games, but certainly am not into spending money for something that doesn't work.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
More fool they. They should have bought from some big-name company, like, say, Microsoft, that they could be confident would still be around.
("Plays for sure ... but not forever")
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Now, if only those people would talk to TD's face and provide a valid reason why they're wrong, we might have a conversation rather than a bunch of whining morons wondering why nobody wants to buy their broken crap or sacrifice their personal security...
Nobody's stepped up to do so, however. Can you?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DRM, a publishers wet dream to
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Niagra Falls, part two...
Every time I hear that word, DRM, it tears me apart...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Required Right-to-Read reference
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just Use Linux
[ link to this | view in chronology ]