Quote:
Originally Posted by eschwartz
Is this just a general "what if someone tries to give me a virus" question?
It wouldn't affect me, since the virus would be written for Windows, not linux.
A bunch of people would double-click on a file that has the ebook icon, and accidentally run a program instead. Very sad, but hardly anything new.
That would be a virus masquerading as an ebook. In order to embed a virus in an ebook, you'd have to find some security flaw to exploit in the ereader program -- one that gives you access to the OS.
Any reputable source for used ebooks would probably be checking for the watermark, by comparing the book to a master copy. They'd notice weird resources hiding out in the EPUB zip.
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Sort of a general question yes. I mean if you buy an ebook 'brand new' from Amazon or Kobo then you know that it's probably safe to open it in your desktop app or on your smart phone reader app or where ever, but how would the person buying the 'used' copy know that it was virus free, or wasn't a virus disguised as an ebook? For that matter how would the buyer know that the 'seller' had the right to resell that particular copy of the ebook? Someone could be able to clean up selling pirated copies of an ebook if they aren't connected with an ebook selling store like Amazon or Kobo but instead are some sort of freelance seller. At least buying from the original store you know that it isn't a virus masquerading as an ebook and that the ebook isn't a pirated copy someone found somewhere.