Let's review the basics about VoiceXML (News - Alert), and then consider if encryption really is the best option for intellectual property protection.
It's a publicly-available open standard, and it provides a measure of vendor independence to end users. No arguments so far? We didn't think so.
Consider, friends, if you make your livelihood through professional services, how you protect your intellectual property? If you're a solution provider you might have a platform, application scripts or Web services to worry about, right? And if you're a vertical market systems integrator, well, no doubt there are application scripts and Web services on purchased platform.
If you're a consultant developing VoiceXML applications for hire, you know full well the value of protecting your intellectual property, and even if you're simply a COTS software developer, working with off-the-shelf software or an applications vendor. You have issues. Well, with intellectual property, at least.
So: How do you protect your intellectual property, if it's in a humanly-readable XML script?
Here's where something like Interact's SPOT Media Platform comes in. The product provides for script documents to be encrypted, as files on a Web service or in the systems file space. If and when needed, they are decrypted as they are fetched, and executed.
This system ensures the vendor's intellectual property is protected, and since applications are often provided on a demo or "try before you buy" basis, this provides a vendor with peace of mind as well.
Each document in the application may or may not be encrypted. Clear and encrypted documents can be intermixed. And the technology allows for existing applications to be augmented and enhanced, with only the enhancement being protected, if that's how you want to roll.
Another approach then would be to only encrypt the "secret sauce" of the application, which is doable since encryption applies both to CCXML and VoiceXML documents.
So, all in all, wouldn't you rather not rely on contracts, copyrights, and legal enforcement when encryption provides a simpler, more cost effective mechanism for intellectual property protection?
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David's articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.
Edited by Juliana Kenny
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