[JoeD]

Any publisher who decides on doing this would lose my business for a very long time even after they realise the error of their ways, I hope I wouldn't be the only one. I didn't buy a single sony product since the root kit fiasco and it took up until pretty much last year for me to be willing to give sony a 2nd chance. Publishers have already done a lot to irk me compared to Sony.

Whilst they must have had lawyers look into it, I really question whether such malware is legal. I cannot believe I'd be allowed to distribute software that holds a computer hostage just because someone illegally downloaded my application. EULA's only get you so far, I'd hope data protection and other laws should still have priority.

However, when some publishers are willing to break the consumer laws with collusion to fix prices, is it any surprise they'll push the bounds elsewhere too?

I'd also hope they don't even consider allow this stuff to be in a legit bought book, because there's bound to be a programmer mess up and some honest customer will be screwed over. It's happened with anti-pirate measures in software.

Edit: Also to add, I see it having zero impact on piracy. A lot of pirated software has already had malware snuck into it by people distributing it and yet it hasn't deterred most pirates. Would similar done by publishers instead of identify thieves make any more difference?

Edit2: I've avoided the topic of technical issues with this plan too which are not insignificant, unlike with software developers.