[b_k]

Originally Posted by rlauzon

But this type of DRM cannot exist.

The stated purpose of DRM is to lock the content to the purchaser to prevent piracy. DRM with the attributes you describe cannot do that, for the simple reason that the lock design and key are available for anyone to see and use. It's like putting a lock on your house and then always keeping a spare key under the door mat. There's no security.

5 minutes after any open source DRM is created, someone will have written a program to take the DRM off. Make it 10 minutes if they go the semi-proprietary route.

If there is no security, why bother with putting DRM on in the first place? It's adding cost to something and getting nothing in return.

So if I would think like you, PGP must be insecure cause the algoryhtms are well known and open-source. Anyone knows the times it would take to crack PGP-keys with a (as of now) secure algorythm? If I remember right, it would take quite a long time.

If we bend reality a bit and assume that such a DRM scheme can be made to work, it still has all the problems of any other DRM scheme:
+ If support for the format goes away, your content becomes useless.
+ You cannot transfer your content to someone else.
+ If a device comes out that does not support the format, you cannot read the eBook on that device.

Simply put, your DRM-scheme cannot be "done in a way that avoids an Adobe- or Microsoft-style chokehold" and cannot "allow books to be accessed permanently and owned for real." and still be DRM. We either have no DRM, or we have a chokehold and eBooks cannot be accessed forever.

And all this doesn't even cover what the true purpose of DRM is (i.e. format/device lock-in). Which means that it will be a tough sell to companies like Sony.

For the "how we treat customers"-thing I think the same way.
But I think it would not be impossible to develop a open source (=portable), user-friendly (=resell the drm-ed content) and secure DRM. To bad that is simply not what the book/drm-software publishers want.

I as customer would like to see a fair and portable solution which does not lock me to one device/os/vendor, but again thats not what the industry wants.