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2. Accepting DRM-encumbered information

This section provides standards and guidelines for use in deciding whether to accept DRM-encumbered information. There are situations where this can be acceptable, and others where it is not. When the standards and guidelines allow for acceptance, and the agency chooses to do so, this section prescribes actions to mitigate risk to the integrity of government information.

2.1 Restrictions on senders/suppliers

Standard

Limitations on sending encumbered information to government

All information supplied to a government agency under statutory obligation, must be free of DRM encumbrances. Except by prior agreement, all other information sent to the government (whether solicited or unsolicited) must be free of digital encumbrance. Government agencies are not obliged to accept DRM encumbrances on any communications to them, except where they have bound themselves by contract to do so.

Rationale

Government agencies may not be able to keep adequate records if communications sent to them carry DRM encumbrances. DRM encumbrances introduce risk to government’s ability to adequately access and use the information as provided for by statute.

This standard supports Policy 1, Informed consent to externally-imposed digital encumbrance.

2.2 Deciding whether to accept

Standard

Requirement to prove inability to revoke DRM rights

When agencies receive encumbered information required for execution of public business, the inability to revoke government access must be proven before accepting the information.

Rationale

Some DRM systems require contact with a rights management system in order to check the current rights settings for encumbered information. In such cases, the rights settings could be altered unilaterally by the vendor subsequent to the government accepting the information, resulting in degradation or total loss of access.

This standard supports Policy 2, Conditions for externally-imposed digital encumbrance.

Guideline

Proving inability to revoke DRM rights

When agencies receive encumbered information required for execution of public business, the inability (either in perpetuity or for an agreed period of use) to revoke government access must be proven. One way of doing this is by placing a copy in a protected location that is never accessible to the vendor’s systems, and confirming that the information can still be used while in this location. To prevent misleading results due to network mechanisms such as caching, this location should have no prior knowledge of current network users, and no synchronisation with the internet or systems connected to the internet, i.e. it should be a ‘quarantined’ machine.

Guideline

Testing for future expiry of DRM rights

Some DRM systems enable usage rights to be limited to a certain time period. Depending on the mechanism used, agencies may be able to test for this by advancing the operating system date to see whether access to the information is lost. However, agencies should note that date detection may not necessarily rely on the operating system date – it may use the system hardware clock, which is not alterable by the user, or refer to an external time source.

Guideline

Deciding whether to grant consent

Factors to consider when deciding whether to consent to receipt of information with DRM encumbrances, are shown below in textual form:

Is the information being supplied to the agency as part of a statutory obligation?
Yes

Don’t accept it with DRM encumbrances (refer Standard, Limitations on sending encumbered information to government)
No

Could the information conceivably constitute a public record? (consider both the expected immediate use, and future uses).
No

Can be accepted.
Yes

Can the information be categorised as a ‘routine or trivial record’?
No

Only accept if the requirements of Policy 2, Conditions for externally-imposed encumbrance, can be met, or a satisfactory unencumbered record can be created, e.g. a file note). This includes consideration of:

  • are the rights adequate for the required usage - does the recipient alone need the rights, or the whole agency, or the whole of government (or some variant of these)?; bear in mind the requirements for use ‘by officials with responsibilities to audit and review’;
  • what level of certainty is there that all possible future usage requirements have been anticipated, and provided for?
  • is there certainty that access will not be revoked or undermined at a later date – will the agency hold a non-revocable master key to the information?
Yes

Can be accepted provided administrative requirements can be met (but it is unlikely that a ‘routine or trivial record’ would be DRM-encumbered).

It is difficult to fully predict the future effects when either applying DRM or accepting DRM-protected information. Such actions should not even be considered unless there are compelling reasons to do so, and the effects of the usage have been stringently considered.

Guideline

Definition of routine or trivial records

Policy 1, Informed consent to externally-imposed digital encumbrance, notes categories of information for which it is possible that an external encumbrance may not compromise the public record. The Chief Archivist has authorised several classes of routine or trivial records for destruction as soon as they are no longer administratively required.

Archives New Zealand’s General Disposal Authority GDA/3 ( http://www.archives.govt.nz/continuum/documents/publications/gda3) lists these classes as follows:

  • Personal correspondence - correspondence with family or friends, doctor's appointments, light-hearted banter, lunch dates, etc.
  • Received for information only - circulated material not meant to result in action from the recipient such as bulletins, newsletters, internal circulars, etc.
  • Trivial work related material - routine housekeeping information, meeting notices and arrangements, contact details, reminder notes, copies of minutes, circulated notices, staff movements, copies of publications, room bookings, etc.
  • Incomplete material - messages or memos never completed or shown to anyone else, never sent for comment, approval or to file, seen by no-one except the creator.
  • Externally sourced material from a bulletin board or listserv - material not directly addressed to the recipient or their agency, includes information downloaded from libraries, databases, or received due to membership in a discussion group or listserv, etc.
  • Received advertising material - advertising flyers, brochures, catalogues, pricelists.

2.3 Actions to take if accepting

Standard

Record the basis for acceptance of encumbrance

If encumbered information is accepted, the basis for accepting it must be formally recorded.

Rationale

Recording the basis for acceptance enables the agency to account for its decision, and demonstrate that risk factors have been adequately considered.

This standard supports Policy 2, Conditions for externally-imposed digital encumbrance.

Guideline

Boilerplate contract text to ensure full control of government-owned information

It is expected that in normal cases, information created for government ownership will be unencumbered with DRM restrictions. Occasionally, it is possible that a government agency will ask for or allow information to be encumbered (perhaps for security reasons), in which case the encumbrance must be under the full and exclusive control of the agency (and not of the creator).

The State Services Commission has developed boilerplate contract text to assert this requirement. The text is included as an appendix to this document (Appendix 1, Control of Government Owned Information - Suggested Boilerplate Clauses).


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