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Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
Doing so would require an ID verification module on whatever device you used to read a document... verify your ID with a thumbprint scan, say, and the doc opens.
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Setting aside the "whodahell is going to agree to put their fingerprints on file with every company that sells them ebooks," the tech is not there yet.
When does your fingerprint get scanned to tie it to the book? At time of purchase? In which case, you can only buy it while logged into a computer that has a fingerprint scanner. The fingerprint scanners we have are touchy & buggy; the computers that use them also allow a password workaround, because if your hands are sweaty or dirty the fingerprint might not work.
Any DRM that is *more* troublesome than the current batch is going to be bypassed. Cracked if that's possible; otherwise, people will screencap & convert the documents. If that's not possible--like on an iPad, because of walled garden setups--the content just won't be bought much.
The idea of "here's this terrific DRM that doesn't work if you're in the hospital because your hands are injured" is not going to work. It has to be *more* convenient than the current DRM, or it won't catch on. (Also. Any DRM that attempts to lock to a single user, rather than just a device, is going to be wholeheartedly rejected. The idea of "I can't let my
husband read my purchased ebooks" would flop horribly.)
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Bottom line, it's do-able with today's technology. Not much different than logging into your PC before you can use it.
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This is a non-trivial amount of technology changes, both hardware & software. Most machines today don't have fingerprint checkers. Certainly, my dedicated reader doesn't. Why would I swap to something that does? Why would I pay *more* for an ebook reader that requires an extra physical filter on access to it? Or for one that only loaded books from a program that was attached to a computer with a scanner? Why would I trust that the fingerprint scanner would always work when I want to read?