Quote:
Originally Posted by jbjb
For example, you could have a scheme whereby, when buying a book, the ebook reader generates a per-book public/private key pair and sends the public key to the fulfillment server, which then encrypts the book. The reader stores the private key in readout-protected memory. The decryption parts of the reader software are in write protected memory (such that reflashing that area of memory causes the readout protected area to be erased). This sort of readout protection of memory is very common in processors aimed at embedded use.
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I think that's similar to what the IEEE is trying set up with its "
Consumer-Ownable Digital Personal Property" system? Maybe?
However, the point is: You can't hand someone content, and make it impossible to copy. At the *slowest*, you can hand them content on a screen that requires no other programs to be open, so they'd have to use a second computer to manually type in the ebook. Which is what people did before scanners got cheap: they opened their paperbacks and typed in the contents.
And consumers aren't mostly going to put up with something as exclusive as an iPod app on their desktops. Aren't going to deal with "you must close everything else to read this book." Which means you can get screencaps & OCR, even if there's no simple way to crack the DRM itself.