Microsoft Delays Release of Protection Software for PPC

Microsoft has postponed solving the problem of the lack of high-level rights protection software for the PocketPC, the handheld computer running the Windows CE operating system.

Currently, only PCs and laptops can open e-books protected by "user-specific" rights management codes, typical of frontlist books available at Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com. PocketPCs are thus relegated to public domain titles, or others without strict digital rights management (DRM).

For some months, reports have circulated that Microsoft was working to supply a patch, or downloadable fix to the PPC DRM, by the end of this year. Microsoft officials have scotched the rumors with this statement: "There will not be an upgrade for current PocketPCs to allow support for DRM5 [the original name for user-specific DRM] ebooks."

Amy Carroll, Microsoft's group manager of consumer marketing for emerging technologies, said, "The original PocketPC design didn't include the hardware to accommodate the highest-level, user-specific DRM. Our choice was to ship with the lower security, or not include MS Reader, and we didn't want to do that."

But in trying to devise an upgrade that would work in a technical way to protect book rights, Carroll said, the user experience became unmanageable. So the project to build a DRM patch for the PPCs now in the market has been dropped. User-specific DRM will have to wait for a new release of the operating system with next-generation PPCs.

As for fears that Microsoft might abandon MS Reader for PPCs altogether, Carroll denied that in the strongest terms. "Microsoft is fully committed to Reader for all forms of Windows, not just Windows 2000, XP and WinCE," she declared, "but emphatically including PocketPCs."