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One of the suggestions the document makes is, “If an unauthorized person accesses the information, a range of actions might then occur. For example, the file could be rendered inaccessible and the unauthorized user’s computer could be locked down, with instructions on how to contact law enforcement to get the password needed to unlock the account. Such measures do not violate existing laws on the use of the Internet, yet they serve to blunt attacks and stabilize a cyber incident to provide both time and evidence for law enforcement to become involved.” In essence, a pirate commits theft and has to report the theft to the police in order for them to regain access to their computer and likely to pay a fine.
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And HOW would one want to achieve this?
A program has to be running on my computer to make this happen, and I can guarantee 100% that it will be ineffective. Even if something like this is hidden in, let's say, ADE or the Kindle software, then I'll know the moment the computer locks down.
What do I need to unlock it? My image, probably made a few days earlier, and my backup. Both are not on that computer. So, I boot the computer using a CD or DVD, wipe the drives, recover the image and data (this will take me about 30 minutes), and then I'll know in short order which software caused the incident.
If I wanted to, I can install a Virtual Machine running any version of Linux. Then I download ebooks to my heart's content, and transfer the epub/mobi/azw files from the virtual machine to the host computer. This computer will only run Calibre, which will never be infected with anything because it's open source.
All of this stuff is just crap. It's all way too easy to circumvent.
The only way to curb piracy is to take a look at GOG.com and copy their business model, as I've often said.
- Large selection
- Low price
- Easy to pay
- Easy to download
- No frackin' DRM
- No hassle
- Many goodies (like the games soundtrack in 320 kbps. I own some games just for the sound track... maybe I'll play them some day too :X)
You select something to buy, you pay, you're done. Download the game, install, play. GOG.com even patches everything up to the latest patch, and fixes problems that prevent older games to run on new computers. It's part of the "No Hassle" clause. Buying a game at GOG.com is so fast, easy, cheap, and hassle-free (not to mention safe) that it beats any reason to pirate. All of that convenience is worth $5-10 to me.
Publishers should be the first ones to take a page out of GOG.com's book.
Diesel E-Books has a sale running now, and a 30% promo code. I've checked some Forgotten Realms fantasy books I wanted to read. As this is just low-brow quick-read fantasy (but still fun, of course), I don't want to spend a lot of money on it. I've calculated that, between the sale and the 30% promo code, I can have a bunch of Forgotten Realms books for $2.35 a piece. That's LESS than the cost of a beer in my local pub. I don't even think about pirating the books, because most of the FR books I want are old (80's, early 90's), so the pirated versions are probably bad OCR-ed crappy versions.
It's cheap ($2.35 is only €1.85: If I buy the paperback in the Netherlands, it'd cost me €7.95), quick and easy, and the stuff is (probably) of good quality. If they'd refrain from using DRM, I'd be perfect.
The only people that will still pirate under those conditions are the losers that think that all entertainment (and all software) must be free. Those are the people that steal anything they can get their hands on, and you'll never stop them, apart from throwing them into jail.
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Originally Posted by JDK1962
Which leads to the final concern that publishers should have: they will have pissed off a community that--on the whole--is probably much more familiar with wreaking computer havoc than they are. Not sure I'd want to be writing malware with my name plastered all over it. Not unless I also felt like painting a huge target on my forehead.
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You can be sure of that.
I've been running a virus scanner like... forever. Norton Antivirus up to 2001, Kaspersy after that, and Microsoft Essentials since its first release. Never, ever has a virus scanner detected anything. If I run a malware scanner, the worst things that come up are tracking cookies.
The ways to avoid crap software are easy:
- Install only software you trust.
- Get this software a a trusted place.
- Have the latest version of your internet browser and plugins, and don't visit untrusted websites.
- Don't execute untrusted stuff mailed to you in attachments.
This common sense prevents all malware except maybe the very "best" high end virusses that can install and propagate without user interaction.