So, what's the problem? Well, every DRM vendor requires that an "agent" be installed on the desktop. Fab managers are reluctant to install most third-party DRM agents. But they're comfortable with Adobe Reader, which seems to be almost as common as Microsoft Office. And Adobe's agent just happens to be Adobe Reader.

The dilemma is that Adobe Policy Server is a DRM tool that works only for PDFs. If we deploy it to address our foremost problem -- unauthorized access to service manual PDFs -- we can't provide DRM to other departments that may need to protect other types of documents. For example, our finance department will surely want to protect financial statements, and legal may want to apply a DRM policy to patent documents.

Once other departments get wind of this DRM deployment, they'll want to apply it to their important documents. All we'll be able to do is to tell them to convert documents to PDFs, which will then allow them to apply DRM policies. Of course, converting a document to PDF requires additional software, which isn't cheap. Meanwhile, Adobe has acquired the FileLine DRM division of Navisware, which it says will allow it to extend protection to Microsoft Office and CAD formats. The company says these capabilities will be available in the fall, and I hope it comes through on that promise.

I anticipate another problem, this one involving the EMC Documentum Content Server, which is the main repository for our service manuals. When a technical writer creates a service manual, it's checked into Documentum and automatically converted to a PDF. The DRM policy would be applied to the document when it was checked into Documentum. Problem is, lots of check-in/check-out operations take place, and many reviewers make changes to a document during its life cycle. Documents may go through many iterations before they're considered "gold," the status when we would want the DRM policy applied.

Adobe doesn't have any hooks built into Documentum to easily apply the policy at the proper point in the document's life cycle. Adobe says that while a client and server software development kit is available for Policy Server to integrate with custom authentication and packaging services, the product does not include out-of-the-box support for Documentum.