Is Slashdot (/.) using DRM in email messages?

Is /. secretly inserting DRM codes into their email messages? Has Microsoft hidden email DRM code in Outlook? Read on to discover the truth!...

I subscribe to the daily email summary of Slashdot stories and have noticed lately that I can't "copy and paste" parts of the messages I receive. Often, I can "cut" or "copy" text from the top of the Slashdot email but I can't copy or cut text that appears later on in the message. On digging into this odd behavior, I've discovered that recent Slashdot messages are sprinkled with embedded digital codes that disable some copying functions in Outlook. The effect is DRM-like copy-protection!

Mixed into the text of Slashdot emails, I frequently find a "b" followed by a [null] byte and a [DC4]. (In Outlook, this sequence of chararcters looks like a "b" followed by two square boxes.) Any attempt to "Forward" a message containing these hidden codes will result in the file being cut off at the first [null]. (C programmers will understand why...) Additionally, it seems that these embedded codes confuse the "cut" and "copy" functions in Outlook's email reader. One can typically copy or cut text that appears before the first [null][dc4] sequence in a message, but you can't cut or copy text that overlaps or follows these /.-DRM codes. This ability to prevent forwarding, copying or cutting text is something that some might explain as a bug... But some would consider it to be a new and interesting way to implement a crude form of DRM (Digital Rights Management) or copy-protection.

The source of Slashdot's easy-DRM-like corruption appears to be funkiness in their HTML to email conversion code. Wherever the HTML for a Slashdot story would contain the HTML entity —, the email conversion code inserts "b[null][dc4]" into the email message. Thus, anyone submitting stories to Slashdot that wishes to prevent their submission from being forwarded or "cut/copied" should simply ensure that their submission starts with an — ... (Note: I'm not sure if this technique works well with email editors other than the one in Outlook.)

Of course, I may be seeing a conspiracy where there is none. It is entirely possible that what we have here is a bug in Slashdot's email conversion which is triggering yet another bug in Microsoft's Outlook email reader. The "DRM-like effect" may not be intentional -- but rather a simple side effect of these two bugs. There may be no conspiracy here... But, then again... DRM seems so popular these days, perhaps there is more to this story than a simple pair of synergistic bugs!

bob wyman