Secret Code, Part 2

The second pillar that Microsoft believes in is the idea of integrated innovation. Integrated innovation means that developments on one part of the platform are leveraged across the rest of the platform. Microsoft spends close to $7 billion on research and development each year. Integrated innovation allows us to capitalize on this spend across all aspects of the platform.

A good example of this is Microsoft’s rights management platform. Microsoft has invested heavily in rights management. We have built assets into Windows Server, in the form of Rights Management Server. This provides the core rights management server functionality, the ability to encrypt, license, and deliver content, and to generate rights management licenses for clients. But we have also built assets into the client side of Windows, in the form of a trusted rights management lockbox that ensures that rights managed content is protected, regardless of the source of that content. We have also built tools into Office, to make it easy to generate and consume content, and into Media Player, to consume rights managed media.

Our rights management platform includes all of these assets. Innovations to one are leveraged by the others, and customers benefit from innovations in all areas.

Comments

• Anonymous
  July 28, 2005
  Sounds like an innovation your customers don't really want/need. Stronger integrated rights management mainly benefits content owners, and allows the imposition of unreasonable limitations on content use. I am in particular talking about, for example, buying a song, and having it only be listenable from my one PC, and not be portable to my laptop, or my iPod, or some other device. So, this is why, I for one, am not enthused about these "innovations."