Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy
This patent covers a lot more than that, it has 171 claims. It covers many distribution channels for DRM ebooks (kiosks, internet, wireless, cable, device to device, publisher direct, etc.), way beyond just "over the phone network".
As someone on slashdot said, this patent is not trying to protect an invention, it's trying to corner a market.
|
I'm not an attorney, but out of curiosity I read through the claims and traced out the tree.
Whether it's "non-obvious" or not, or prior art exists or not, the 815 patent comprehensively covers a wide variety of "secure" distribution systems. For example, in one path of claims, it uses public/private keys and appropriate handshaking.
Here is the ultimate irony - Kindle's DRM is not secure (as shown by mobideDRM).
Kindle's implementation might "read on" (I've been googling) 815, if Amazon had implemented a more secure scheme. Things came close in claim 63 which adds a header concept similar to the one exposed by kindlefix.py, but then claim 63 drivels off into an "electronic home book system" (This is coming from a TV company).
The closest pathway to match Kindle is probably claim #'s 1,2,24,25 & 26, but then the chain seems to end, and if you step back - this chain of claims is incredibly "broad" (which may not matter in court, but common sense says Discovery will likely lose one way or another)