Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
They do have ways of protecting the information. It's just not perfect... neither is the rest of the world. Your house can be broken into, and your phone conversation can be overheard. And there are better security measures possible... but they require controls over personal freedoms that people never seem to be willing to give up... so our lapse of security is really our own fault.
I'd like to suggest that all of that is  a bit, but I know I can't. An ebook reading device that can report your copying and file-sharing becomes a security issue... this is why I brought the article up. The potential is already with us, in our computers, smartphones and in some other devices; it is becoming noticeable in office environments, especially where security is an issue, but not so much with personal devices... yet.
At about the time we're convincing booksellers to toss DRM systems, they may be preparing to put PIv6 capability onto our readers and other devices, and say to us: "DRM? Sure, we'll toss it... we don't need it any more." Because they'll have a protocol embedded in your device that does all the same things as DRM, and can't be removed.
(Hmm... I probably should have saved that last bit for Halloween...  )
Or... maybe... this protocol can be rolled out and used in a way that will actually benefit the use and security of digital files, both for the producer and the consumer, better than DRM ever could. Well, at least it may be better (it can't be much worse). We might even be part of the dialog that helps it along, much in the same way early dialogs at MR helped shape aspects of the ebook industry. |
While I can understand what you are saying, someone breaking into your house is - IMO - very different than someone hacking into a huge information farming database. Or whatever you call these companies.
There is a decided lack of information that someone can get from breaking into my house. They are more interested in what they can carry off, not what my life is like. TVs, computers, jewelry (etc) could all disappear. Maybe - if the thief is also enterprising - credit cards & check books, too. They don't care that I like to buy dried yams for my dog or that I shopped from Amazon 22 times last month. It's unlikely that they'll run off with my bank statements or are concerned about my spending habits.
Breaking into someone's house also creates a decided risk on the part of the criminal. They are physically in someone else's home and on their property. Not sure where you are but here I would have the right to kill that person.
Hacking into a huge database with people's private information has a decided
lack of risk. These people are sitting at home with IP jammers and whatever else they use to mask their trail. If they get caught the most they'll ever get is jail time (and it is often unlikely that they get caught).
The major issue that falls the ebook world is that how can anyone really say that it is not a major breech of privacy to plug this crap into my ebook reader? I would never buy a completely enabled ebook reader if I were to get constant notices from the device/book seller saying things like, “Now that you’ve completed book 1 of
Your Life, Your Lack of Privacy you can buy book 2 at only double the price!” I know that content creators want to protect their privacy but I think even they will balk at being tracked to such a degree. The scariest part of the movie Minority Report – to me – the part where the primary character had to remove his eye balls to change his identity.