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Steve Jordan thanks for the reply. Whatever is used it has to be unhitched from device - this just does not work and can never work. My suggestion is simply self-identity, that is the book identifies itself as a specific work, bought from a specific retailer with a item (copy) specific serial ID.
Nothing would make the book unreadable and simple editing could remove all security. It is an aid to policing, not a substitute for actually tracking down pirates and dealing with them by legal means.
Everything else relies on either keeping the same set of devices forever, or some abstract password (I regularly lose these so I now use the same simple, easily guessed, password for everything).
My main problem is that DRM the way it is done now cripples the ebook. I have many legitimate reasons for manipulating the text aside from simply reading it, none of which, by any stretch of the imagination, comes close to piracy.
Any system that opens the book fully, allows for editing (legit or otherwise). It is a catch-22. The book is either permanently crippled or opened up for editing of one sort or another.
The problem is thus two-fold with DRM. One the system that would make it universal (device independent) requires identifying the buyer unambiguously. This has serious consequences, especially if the buyer is reading something their government deems subversive, dangerous, and liable to sanctions.
Biometrics could be used, but think of the consequence of finger prints in keeping tabs on the reading population, link the print to the person and with the right software anything and everything they are reading is available to the local police. I was considering at one stage the use of generic identifiers - height, eye colour, hair type - simple generic descriptors, linked with a book and reference (ie any selected text divided by 999, text plus number = password).
The problem is that the ebook remains crippled, simply unencrypting is actually a limited use right.
That is the bit that I have been unable to reconcile - no matter what the system, no matter how it might be improved (improvement is not hard to imagine), we still get stuck with a book that artificially restricts legitimate use.
My solution of signing/stamping works with signatures, will not satisfy publishers, because they are fixed on the idea that there is a foolproof electronic solution. The idea that copyright infringements would have to policed just like any other item, including traditional books, frightens them.
I believe there is a concession to be made, that the right to resell, or make an ebook publicly available is given up. Putting a purchased ebook on the net, is therefore an infringement, removing the signatures from it a serious infringement, re-editing and presenting a copyrighted ebook likewise.
What is done privately within the home, or amongst friends on a one to one basis, that is private and publishers should just give up on this aspect of things - besides which it does them good, if they publish good works, in the end.
For libraries, I would suggest, time-bomb triggers, that is agreement by software reader suppliers to look for a library signature and delete the file if it is out of date. This might also work for short term renting of books, but anyone determined to get a copy could easily get around it.
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