Document Security: Copy Protection & Copy Control

Document management security: copy protection & control

The key to all document management systems is the ability to impose document control on the documents that are being created or distributed.  If there is no document management, then there is no document control.

And if there is no document control, then there is nothing.  Ask any auditor.  Those boys and girls know all there is to know about document control systems.  They don’t just do it for a living, they mainline on it.

But you don’t have any document control without document security technology that includes document copy protection.  If other people can copy your documents, then you have no document control and you have no document management.

And that gets us round to the question of document security.  That is what sits at the base of all document management systems.  Document security is not something that is fixed.   For some users of documents you may wish to allow them different capabilities.  That comes back to document control.  Document control must allow you, as the document owner, to decide which controls are to be implemented in support of your document management objectives.

And when you have implemented your document control system, as the auditors would tell you, you need some way of being able to check that it is actually working.  So your document control system must have some way of letting you know that your document security system is actually working.  This might be recording when document control is being used, or it might be to record when those who are unauthorized attempt to breach document security.

Document copy protection is perhaps the most difficult thing to achieve.  Everything in a computer is there to make copying easy.  So to achieve both document copy protection and document protection you need to be able to hold documents in a form that is inaccessible to those who are not authorized.  And that means encrypting them.  As a practicality it is not possible to stop people from copying files, so to achieve document copy protection you need to encrypt the files.  That way, it no longer matters if someone copies the files or not, your document management system does not grant them the authority to use the document and so you have achieved document copy protection despite the fact that the ‘document’ has been copied.

Download document security software

Download document security software that uses digital rights management (DRM) controls and US Government approved AES 256 bit encryption to prevent unauthorized use and misuse of your documents.

With Locklizard document security software you can control access to your documents, what users can do with them (copy, print, etc.), and when they can no longer be viewed (expire).  You can even apply dynamic watermarks (username, company, date/time stamp) that is applied when documents are viewed and/or printed.  Locklizard DRM security software provides complete document management, copy protection, and copy control for your documents.