Quote:
Originally Posted by DuckieTigger
Of course you can change the ebooks right now if you wanted. The thing I wanted to mean her beeing in control was: JKR can honest and truthfully say that her ebooks never once got copied or changed. How can you mess with something that does not officially exist.
I believe a public key encryption system is needed for ebooks to verify that a book has not been modified. Very interesting in fact that DRM is thought of, but not a digital signature for a ebook. With that it would even be possible to keep track of revisions of a ebook similiar to different print runs in pbooks (e.g. typos get fixed, revision number goes up).
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She can say that her authorized e-books have not been altered, and that is true, but only trivially true, it doesn't mean anything. She can't say that her e-books haven't been altered, because even if they are not authorized, they still remain her books.
I don't think there is a widespread phenomenon of people altering illegally copied books. I suppose someone could alter books, but other than pranks, what is the incentive. I could see someone altering a mystery, and just as the detective is about to reveal who the killer was, the book could switch over to rutabaga recipes. Or someone could be reading Lord of the Rings and wondering how John Carter got into the story. Or wondering how Winnie the Pooh got into your H.P. Lovecraft.
By not selling them as e-books she has no control at all over her book. If she sells the book as e-books, then she regains a degree of control. If you buy a copy of Harry Potter as an e-book, you have a very good expectation that they book you purchased is the book you intended to purchase.