Sean Wallbridge
Someone asked and I lifted the content from the source (reference, this isn’t original content – http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101541481033.aspx?mode=print) but after taking a moment to bring the key bit to their attention and making it pretty, I might as well cut and paste it here as well…
SharePoint IRM Can and Cannot’s…
- IRM = Information Rights Management
How IRM can help protect content
IRM helps to protect restricted content in the following ways:
- Helps to prevent an authorized viewer from copying, modifying, printing, faxing, or copying and pasting the content for unauthorized use
- Helps to prevent an authorized viewer from copying the content by using the Print Screen feature in Microsoft Windows
- Helps to prevent an unauthorized viewer from viewing the content if it is sent in e-mail after it is downloaded from the server
- Restricts access to content to a specified period of time, after which users must confirm their credentials and download the content again
- Helps to enforce corporate policies that govern the use and dissemination of content within your organization
How IRM cannot help protect content
IRM cannot protect restricted content from the following:
- Erasure, theft, capture, or transmission by malicious programs such as Trojan horses, keystroke loggers, and certain types of spyware
- Loss or corruption because of the actions of computer viruses
- Manual copying or retyping of content from the display on a screen
- Digital or film photography of content that is displayed on a screen
- Copying through the use of third-party screen-capture programs
- Copying of content metadata (column values) through use of third-party screen-capture programs or copy-and-paste action