Public Key Cryptography

[igorsk]

Long keys such as used in RSA are not generated from "a simple password". Their generation usually involves all sorts of random data and is about impossible to duplicate (which is one of the points of using them).

[Taylor514ce]

Yes, true. I was thinking more along the level of WEP encryption.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

Yes, true. I was thinking more along the level of WEP encryption.

I tought that WEP was trivial to crack. You need very little traffic to do it also.

Even a simple password can be lost. For example if you die. So there is still a reason to convert your property to a format other can use.

[Taylor514ce]

Conceded. Realize, though, (read Peter's posts in this thread), that publishers simply will not produce e-books without some system in place, even though any system "fails", technically, to prevent privacy.

It's a classic dilemma:

Publisher Lemma 1: consumers must be able to read a copy of the book.
Publisher Lemma 2: consumers must not be able to produce a readable copy of the copy of the book.

DRM is all smoke-and-mirrors meant to hide the dilemma.

Publishers have to eliminate one of the lemmas. They could eliminate the first, and simply not produce e-books. Or, they can attempt to mitigate the second, by focusing on producing books keyed to individual users, while full-well recognizing that people can and will still produce copies. It's better than no security at all, and it's better than keying books to devices. Keying to the user mimics what occurs with paper books. Keying to devices does not, and provides incentive to remove DRM.

Keying to the person provides the same illusion of security to the publisher, and removes the honest user's incentive for bypassing that security.

[wgrimm]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Just to be clear, there cannot be a technological solution to the problem of preventing illegal file sharing.

Perhaps not, but there may be a BUSINESS solution! case in point being the Itunes store. I hear Apple has stopped DRMing many titles. They let you use purchased material on 5 devices. They are doing very well. Why are they doing well? Because they decided to allow the consumers to have RIGHTS when they purchase from the Apple store.

And Apple hasn't allowed unrestrained greed to torpedo their efforts. DRM is simply going to go away. Smart companies will adapt to the market and make profits like Apple has done. If publishers can't understand that an e-book is a lesser good than a paper or hardback book, and adjust prices accordingly, they will not have a market. Piracy will always exist, but piracy isn't really the issue here.

Music piracy would exist with or without Itunes, and book piracy will exist no matter what publishers do. The real question that publishers should be asking is "how do I make a profit." Not "how can we stop those pesky pirates." And a big part of the answer is CONVENIENCE."

Would many if not most readers pay $3 or $4 for a well-formatted e-book, perhaps with an extra or 2 thrown in, as opposed to grabbing a free pirated edition? I think they would. Are most readers stupid enough to pay close to paper book prices for an e-book, and lose most of their rights in the process (right to resell being a big right that is lost). Doesn't look like it.

[wgrimm]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

Conceded. Realize, though, (read Peter's posts in this thread), that publishers simply will not produce e-books without some system in place, even though any system "fails", technically, to prevent privacy.

It's a classic dilemma:

Publisher Lemma 1: consumers must be able to read a copy of the book.
Publisher Lemma 2: consumers must not be able to produce a readable copy of the copy of the book.

DRM is all smoke-and-mirrors meant to hide the dilemma.

I think DRM will disappear because it is unworkable. Current pricing on many e-books is terrible, and consumers are not biting.

In regards to technical books, I came to my own conclusion a while back. I had bought a hefty tech book, didn't like to carry it about. The pdf version was about 75% of the paper price. I called the publisher- no discounts available for purchasers of the paper book.

I stripped the pages out of the book, scanned them in my company's high speed copier and did OCR, and formatted to the 2 electronic formats that I prefer. Time spent- less than 2 hours, of which maybe 10 minutes was hands-on.

And this is the way I will solve that problem in the future, too. I am not a pirate, and wouldn't give these files away, but it made me realize how very easy pirating text is, and convinced me that publishers had better start adjusting their ebook business models. Because much text will indeed move to machine readable formats, and the publishers can either lower prices and ditch DRM, or the pirates will be doing the publishing.

The best e-book scheme I have seen to date is the one from Ereader- unlock the books with full name and valid cc number. Not many people want to give books stamped with this information away, and it is unobtrusive. Just wish they offered their books in more formats.