[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by DLSieving

Thank you, eschwartz!

I'll do just that - research every font and pay as I go if needed. Hopefully I'll get license certificates whose numbers I can publish on my Copyright page to appease the suspicious.

Why are you being melodramatic about it?

As long as I publish with DRM, it seems to me there would be no way for anyone but Amazon to prove or disprove that my embedded fonts are obfuscated, since DRM is obfuscation on steroids. This is what makes obfuscation theatre as Kovid put it. But if the font owner requires it then I'll obfuscate anyway, so that if my book gets DRM hacked at least it will be revealed that the required obfuscation theatrics are in place.

Are you saying that DRM is also theatre? Is it that breakable? Will my book be a revenue-free sensation all over China the day after I publish it on KDP?

Weak DRM would be very costly to Amazon and so I would think it should be a very high priority for them to fix.

Dave

Actually, ebook DRM is applied per file in an unpacked EPUB (this is why the metadata is not encrypted) and I am not at all sure the DRM is applied to fonts as well.

The internals of the mobipocket format are slightly more complicated...



But no. The reason why it is security theater is because DRM and obfuscation are essentially two implementations of a really stupid concept.
You cannot simultaneously allow someone to use something AND stop them from using it, it is a rather basic logical flaw.

Read up on the analog loophole.

...

In order for someone to be able to read their purchased ebook, the decryption keys must reside on their own computer or ereader.
In order to stop a person from trivially using those keys to permanently decrypt their purchased ebook, the ebook DRM must therefore also steal control of the person's computer.
Like the Sony rootkit fiasco.

Ever heard of DeCSS (for video)? What about the above-mentioned tools by Apprentice Alf (for ebooks)?

Originally Posted by DLSieving

PeterT:

Readers who change the fonts in my books in spite of my efforts to the contrary will only ruin their ability to understand them. Fonts can be part of the author's communication to the reader. If the reader changes them in such cases then there will be a failure to communicate. Everyone loses. Just because you suddenly can do something (such as launch nuclear weapons or allow users to change an author's fonts) doesn't automatically mean that you should.

As an author, you certainly have the right to decide if you believe a specific font is necessary for your Art.
But I do agree with dickloraine and PeterT, in that many (stupid) authors embed pointless off-the-rack default fonts like TNR, Garamond, Charis...

Embedded fonts bloat your ebook, which means Amazon charges a higher delivery cost.
They are often redundant, since ereaders and reader apps have their own system fonts.
Some buyers don't care about or notice fonts (me), and some others are mortally offended about someone else's authorial taste in fonts.

The agnostic in me questions what impact your fonts will actually have.


I will leave it at this: as you yourself said, just because you can do something, doesn't necessarily mean you should.

That goes for the author as well as the reader. Please don't embed fonts instinctively, only do so for very specific reasons.
(The #1 reason for embedded fonts in commercial ebooks is actually because the author was afraid you need to embed a font in order to ensure the book can be read. )

Offered solely FWIW, because someone else mentioned the "necessity" of doing so.


P.S. Again, please cut out the melodrama. I almost left this thread without replying because I was rolling my eyes so hard.