Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
Whoever's benefit it is, it remains that fingerprint-secured digital files could be very secure. If the fingerprint data is encrypted into the file upon purchasing, the user would have to use their finger-swipe to open the file. To make the entire system secure, devices designed to read the file would require a protocol designed to refuse to open a file without fingerprint encryption
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Such a system cannot be secure. Even if it's a closed hardware system, hardware hacking could determine the encryption algorithm and the key derived from the fingerprint, and then the books could be decrypted on a general purpose computer.
There is no DRM system that will prevent a determined and intelligent hacker from breaking it.
Even if such a theoretically impossible system was possible and implemented, the determined ebook pirate would just have an automated system to photograph and OCR every page with an automated 'next page' press. Since the screen would be sharp and clear with no smudged ink or poor reproduction the OCR output would be as near perfect as anyone could wish.
Digital data replicators are here, and here to stay. Attempts to restrict this by technological means are doomed to failure.
But I do not think that this means that authors and other creators of digital data are doomed to low to zero income as their work is reproduced by everyone for free. Enough people are willing to pay for (convenient, high quality, reasonably priced) digital work to support authors and other content creators.