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I've researched around quite a bit, with no luck. What I need in a nutshell is a way to protect my company's intellectual property. Some AutoCAD drawings walked out the door with a disgruntled employee, and we're now seeing proof that they've been handed over to our competitor. I'm under orders to figure out ways to prevent this from happening again.
I need for select files to be accessible only from company computers. In other words, the file may wind up copied to a flash drive, or emailed, but without authorization being given, the receiving computer can't do anything with it. I understand that even that is not a perfect solution; a determined thief will simply take screenshots of what he wants before giving his notice, or whatever. That, however, will have limits. One of our larger machines involves hundreds of drawings. It would be quite an endeavor to screencap all of that.
Okay, background: We're a Windows house, ~40 users, mostly now on Win7, though a few stations still running XP. Server to be used is 2008R2. I've played around with BitLocker, but now see that it won't stop a thief from copying. (I believe it decrypts the file as you copy it off to another disk) Here's the hard part: A few of our users do need to be able to take files with them on their laptops, and they still need to be protected. If that wasn't the case, I could do much of what I need with sharing setup and group policies on the server.
I've also looked into CADVault. It has its uses, but also doesn't appear to be set up to stop a disgruntled employee.
Any thoughts? I'd be willing to consider 3rd party software solutions, or even hardware if it wasn't terribly expensive. I'm trying to find out more about Check Point, but I think that they may be overkill for what we need.
8Ah, the DRM problem. Good luck! – Matt Ball – 2012-08-22T20:01:26.197
1Sounds like you need to seek an Attorney sounds like a lawsuit especially if you can prove intellectual property rights – DJ KRAZE – 2012-08-22T20:06:12.573
We're investigating the legal side..it gets tricky. We can visibly see that their machine is a carbon copy of ours, but the process of proving that they have our docs in-house could be lengthy and expensive. Thanks for the look! – None – 2012-08-22T20:49:37.243
5This is simply not possible. If they can read it, they can copy it. – Luke – 2012-08-22T20:54:22.450
1You won't be able to stop it, but perhaps you could add watermarks such that it's easier to prove a design was copied, just as map makers sometimes include fictional streets. – Adrian McCarthy – 2012-08-22T23:34:13.480
You can lock a DWG with a password but I have not heard of locking it to specific hardware. All I can think of is using xrefs inside the drawing that are only accessible from an AutoCAD app. Even then there is probably a way to copy-paste the xref items into a new drawing and steal it. – CAD bloke – 2012-09-05T11:19:01.283