SD eBook for SDHC and SDXC cards

jasonkchapman · 01-05-2011, 03:46 PM

It seems like everyone wants in on the booming ebook market. Via Engadget comes the SD association's press release about their upcoming UHS-II spec for SDHC and SDXC cards.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/05/s...s-ii-standard/

In addition to increased speed, they seem to be promising a new specification for content distribution on SD cards. The association's Web site (sdcard.org) calls SD eBook an "application specification". I'm wondering if the goal is an SD card-specific DRM scheme, but I could be way off base.

Quote:

eBook: Expanding functionality of mobile devices
"Our new eBook application brings the digital book niche to the global masses. It opens broad consumer access to eBook content and turns billions of existing SD mobile phones and devices into eReaders," Frentz said. "SD continues to evolve its capabilities to support voracious consumer demand for portable movies, television broadcasts, high-definition home videos and now full-color books."

The eBook application increases the value of SD-slotted mobile phones and other display devices. Publishers and readers alike will benefit from full-color, illustration-intensive books like graphic novels available as pre-loaded and portable content. The application lets consumers create an expandable digital library and view content on other SD devices. It also opens new and secure opportunities for content publishers who are currently limited by downloaded content restricted for use only on specific devices. SD application specifications are designed so SD memory cards can be used in all SD devices.

Fastolfe · 01-05-2011, 04:07 PM

DRM doesn't work and won't ever work, on account of one single, unavoidable technical requirement: at some point between the secure, encrypted file and the eyes of the human consulting it, the book needs decoding.

Even assuming a perfect encryption scheme that creates an airtight DRM file, all one needs to do to recover the clear version of an encrypted file is figuring out which bit of the memory to read. It may be anything from the filesystem cache to the malloc()ed area in ram where the decoded file is kept for processing, to the screen's framebuffer, but somewhere in the memory, the clear-text file is there. Anybody with a JTAG interface and a little experience can recover the file.

Heck, even if the hardware is really good at keeping its innards unsnoopable, there's always the crude method of taking screenshots and running them through an OCR, which works incredibly accurately because the characters displayed on the screen are much more consistent and smudge-free than a paper book's.

And if you think that's a lot of trouble to decrypt a file, remember that it only takes one motivated dude and an internet connection. Once the clear-text file is out on the net, the cat's out of the bag and the publisher has lost.

So, DRM is useless. The sooner the industry realizes that and invents a new business model to sell books (or music or films), the better for us the customers, as well as them.

fjtorres · 01-05-2011, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonkchapman

I'm wondering if the goal is an SD card-specific DRM scheme, but I could be way off base.

That is the implication.
SD has always stood for Secure Digital as each SD card has a unique serial number. So it is likely that they are looking to establish yet another DRM scheme, one that locks content to the card rather than a user account or a device ID.
Theoretically this would allow the user to download a file once and read it everywhere off the same card.
Only problem is most ebook readers have more than enough onboard storage that card storage isn't really needed for DRM'ed content. And account-based DRM seems to satisfy publishers without unduly scaring DRM-indiferent customers. (DRM-phobics will, of course, want nothinng to do with it until it's cracked.)

It's really a solution in search of a market.
It might fly in China or France, I suppose.

CyGuy · 01-05-2011, 05:33 PM

Perhaps the actual reader application as well as the eBooks will be on the card? The reader app could be browser-based so it would work on any device. Sort of like a "portable app" is now (which I use extensively). That actually might not be a bad idea, so long as there are no restrictions as far as copying/pasting content to/from the cards, and of course no DRM of any kind. The eBooks also need to be a "standard" format, if there ever is one...

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01-05-2011, 04:07 PM	#2
Fastolfe Bookworm Posts: 98 Karma: 55796 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Sony PRS-650	DRM doesn't work and won't ever work, on account of one single, unavoidable technical requirement: at some point between the secure, encrypted file and the eyes of the human consulting it, the book needs decoding. Even assuming a perfect encryption scheme that creates an airtight DRM file, all one needs to do to recover the clear version of an encrypted file is figuring out which bit of the memory to read. It may be anything from the filesystem cache to the malloc()ed area in ram where the decoded file is kept for processing, to the screen's framebuffer, but somewhere in the memory, the clear-text file is there. Anybody with a JTAG interface and a little experience can recover the file. Heck, even if the hardware is really good at keeping its innards unsnoopable, there's always the crude method of taking screenshots and running them through an OCR, which works incredibly accurately because the characters displayed on the screen are much more consistent and smudge-free than a paper book's. And if you think that's a lot of trouble to decrypt a file, remember that it only takes one motivated dude and an internet connection. Once the clear-text file is out on the net, the cat's out of the bag and the publisher has lost. So, DRM is useless. The sooner the industry realizes that and invents a new business model to sell books (or music or films), the better for us the customers, as well as them.

01-05-2011, 05:33 PM	#4
CyGuy Avid Reader Posts: 769 Karma: 7777778 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: PocketBook 902, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, ASUS TF700, and Cybook Gen III	Perhaps the actual reader application as well as the eBooks will be on the card? The reader app could be browser-based so it would work on any device. Sort of like a "portable app" is now (which I use extensively). That actually might not be a bad idea, so long as there are no restrictions as far as copying/pasting content to/from the cards, and of course no DRM of any kind. The eBooks also need to be a "standard" format, if there ever is one...

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