Has anyone noticed that most digital rights protection schemes seem to be broken pretty quickly? Especially the big boys. DVD CSS protection, MS .lit e-books, various MP3 protections like for iTunes and others. It seems that they all get broken, and I'm sure the new hi-def video standard DRM will be broken also.
Most likely this is being applied mostly for personal use of content. I would like to think that piracy is not the main usage of these utilities. But I can't even advise breaking DRM for personal use because there may be laws restricting usage depending on where you are, and how literally you interpret the law. It has been argued by famous "Jon" that DRM is not about piracy anyway, but about licensing and controlling of hardware manufacturers. And others have pointed out it's not about piracy but market segmentation -- once you adopt their standard, you don't buy from a competitor because it isn't compatible.
But what I really wanted to point out in this editorial is that the one obvious example of a DRM that isn't broken (yet) is the eReader DRM. What's remarkable about this exception is not that eReader DRM is so unbreakable that no one has been able to do it. What is remarkable is what appears to me to be the distinguishing feature that causes it to be left alone... it is remarkably user friendly!
With eReader, you can install on Palm or PPC or other eReader platforms, they have free versions of the reader software and you can even loan it to a friend if you are willing to type in your credit card number into their device. (No, the credit card number is not even stored there, it's just used on the fly to create a hash code to verify the credentials.)
So could it be that the DRM schemes that serve the customer the best, and show reasonable flexibility in their impositions, are also the ones that are less likely to become targets for avoidance. That would be another argument supporting the fact that DRM is making criminals out of the average consumer.
Well, with our knowledgeable audience here at MobileRead, I'm sure someone will find some other examples that are lesser used DRM schemes that have not been broken, and some may want to argue that the only reason eReader has not been hit is because they are not big enough yet. Certainly it's not the scale nor does it have the negative image of Microsoft.
Maybe I can't prove it, or even convinceingly argue the point, but I sure like to think that DRM schemes that come close to being fair and reasonable are the very ones that will not face the onslaught of cracking software that some of the more onerous DRM schemes will face.
I wonder what others think about this eReader exception to the rule?
P.S. No... this article is most definitely NOT a call to crack any DRM software. There's no reason to think this particular one is an especially challenging exercise, and the protection restrictions are quite reasonable relative to other protections schemes. It's the DRM I choose for purchases myself. So the only time we might really need a cracking utility is if eReader goes out of business. Let's hope that never happens, and that e-books are more and more successful every year!