New DRM method changes the author's words to make each copy unique and traceable

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

But Nate, you can't hide a watermark from a hex editor. It has to take space. You find it and cut it out. Or screen scrape the text, and drop it into an editor and reconvert. Text is just too compact to actually watermark. You can only watermark that actual e-book (by sticking it in as non-readable bits).

I was just explaining the math, not arguing in favor of the process.

[Doitsu]

I had a look at the German examples, and it seems that the basic algoithm is primarily based on only two strategies:

1. Rearrangement of sequential nouns or adjectives:

German:

A) ... nimmt man einen großen oder kleinen Behälter ...
B) ... nimmt man einen kleinen oder großen Behälter ...

English:

A) ... one takes a large or small container ...
B) ... one takes a small or large container ...

German:

A) ... in einem Hexenkessel von Kriegen, Gewalt und Verbrechen ...
B) ... in einem Hexenkessel von Gewalt, Verbrechen und Kriegen ...

English:

A) ... in a witch's cauldron of wars, violence and crimes ...
B) ... in a witch's cauldron of violence, crimes and wars ...


2. Substitution of adjectives with their negated antonyms:

German:

A) ... in einem Paradies, das in eurer Zeit undenkbar gewesen wäre.
B) ... in einem Paradies, das in eurer Zeit nicht denkbar gewesen wäre.

English:

A) ... in a paradise inconceivable in your time.
b) ... in a paradise not conceivable in your time.

IMHO, it was most likely a bored linguist who read too much Chomsky who came up with this harebrained idea, which'll eventually be scrapped.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by Sregener

Changing an author's work without permission would be a violation of copyright law. I can't imagine too many authors who would approve of this.

We need a pre- generated jury of authors and poets, already on tap for when someone wrings their publisher's neck for using this kind of DRM.

[Xanthe]

The publishers already can't produce a product that is free from errors nor keep track of them. How are they ever going to keep track of things with this scheme?

[PurpleStar]

This whole thing is ridiculous. They can't change an author's work.

[QuantumIguana]

It would be easy to defeat this. Just use the same technique of reordering words, and no one could prove the document came from you.

"The winter of our discontent is now."

"You can call me Ishmael."

"More and more curious."

"Everyone agrees that if a man isn't married, and has a lot of money, he needs a wife."

"The night was dark and stormy."

[BillSmithBooks]

That's not a typo, that's my DRM.

At least now we all have an excuse when a typo slips by.

[elcreative]

Funnily enough, this method was used in one of the early "Jack Ryan" novels of Tom Clancy... but only aimed at a small number of copies being circulated in government circles and also extended slightly to have the differing area written in such a fashion as to be almost guaranteed to be used in a quote - used to catch a leaker...

[SteveEisenberg]

"inconsistent" and "not consistent" aren't identical. In expository prose, the former is preferable because one should avoid unnecessary words.

And if you randomly change "inconsistent" and "not consistent," in the paragraph above, the meaning will be lost.

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

It would be easy to defeat this.

Yes, as with metadata watermarking where the book presented to the user doesn't change. But some uploaders wouldn't bother, and become examples of the legal peril of such activities. Also, you could prove someone had an unauthorized copy even if you couldn't prove who was the original purchaser.

I'm for watermarking, but not to the point where it mars the text. Then, I think DRM is a reasonably good idea, so what do I know?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

I'm for watermarking, but not to the point where it mars the text. Then, I think DRM is a reasonably good idea, so what do I know?

I'm not for watermarking and I'm not for DRM except for time limited DRM for libraries. Any DRM that modifies the book's contents can go suck eggs.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm not for watermarking and I'm not for DRM except for time limited DRM for libraries. Any DRM that modifies the book's contents can go suck eggs.

At least watermarking doesn't replace lightning with a lightning bug.

[Sil_liS]

I would think that the first limitation has to do with the fact that it would only work for digital-only books. You are not going to have variations in the physical version, which means that the physical version is a DRM-free version.

The second problem would be that stores like Amazon, where you can download your purchased books again would have to keep all versions of the books. If you have 10k variations the store has to keep 10k versions of the book specifically linked to each customer.

The third problem is that if this is an automatic algorithm it will have some problems when are quotes in the book (not to be or to be, that is the question).

[pynch]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

"Everyone agrees that if a man isn't married, and has a lot of money, he needs a wife.""

Definitely better than the original! Could you re-write the rest of that book, too, please?

[ProfCrash]

Somebody re-read Patriot Games recently and think Jack Ryan's trap to catch the leaker of classified documents is genius.

[Section8]

This sounds similar to the concept of trap streets that mapping companies are supposed to have used to attempt to "trap" copyright violators.