Security Question
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)Posted by: barkerw
I'm have some files that i want to give others in my office access to open but not copy to their own computers.....is there a way to set this up in windows or would i need a seperate security program of some type? Basically its lots and lots of clip art and i want people in the office to be able to open a document over the network and copy and paste individual pieces of clip art off the page if they need one here or there, but not be able to just drag and drop whole pages and/or "clipart books" of the network to their own computers. Would anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks
Wes
Posted by: lynx
This isn't quite the sort of file-sharing we are usually talking about, but I'll have a go at answering it anyway.
There's a big problem with what you are wanting to do.
If you allow someone to copy-and-paste into a document, then therre's nothing to stop them doing the same to their own hard drive. The reason is simply - the source (your computer) doesn't know what the destination is, other than the fact that the request for the file came from another computer.
While you can install all sorts of protection to stop people doing things to the source, as soon as you give them read access you lose all control over what happens at the destination. It's like a newspaper publisher saying that only the purchaser is allowed to read the paper, unless you can watch all the copies all the time you simply can't have that sort of control.