Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
OK, so that basic bookshop account info is going to be visible? Because unless it is, how does my hypothetical author find the specific pirate who's costing him money by uploading books? So now the watermark is going to say Peter Pirate got this book at Amazon. And then what? Author contacts Amazon and Amazon gives out personal information, just on the author's say-so? Amazon takes on the job of contacting Peter Pirate?
I really don't see it. My first impression was, yeah, fine, watermark, won't affect me, but the more I think about it, about how it might actually work, it looks like a recipe for trouble. I think there might be huge privacy issues with it.
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First off, Some information will be visible such as "Book sold to Peter Pirate". Next additional information with shop/order number will be watermarked invisibly inside of the ebook.
Should Peter Pirate want to spread the ebook, he will have to get rid the ebook of it's visible and invisible parts.
If we suppose that some of them are removed, (but not all), and the ebook is torrented, Publisher will get the pirated copy, give it to the Watermark's creator, who will find out the shop and order number. With that, the Publisher can indeed go and see the reseller to ask for the customer's data.
Yes, it CAN lead to privacy issues , but no more than encryption-based DRM, which for all we know not only does restrict the legitimate uses, but also contains personal data, with EXACTLY the same privacy issues.