![]() ![]() Google Books and others are already using this model, as does Amazon for its html5 offering. ![]() The first alternative is to move away from self-contained and encrypted files, and to migrate book content to "the cloud" for once and for all. The Adobe system allows the rights you are granted to be described in some detail, ie whether your "purchase" allows you to cut and paste the text, etc. (See chart below): you get encrypted files, these are opened by authenticating against your machines and your identity (and matched to your purchasing data, etc) by a central authority (Amazon, Apple, Adobe). So you authenticate to an account, and to a set of machines. Adobe's Adept allows you to "register" six devices against your Adobe account. The per-user key is granted you by Adobe and linked to a set of machine IDs. ![]() An e-reader using Adobe's Adept system (for example) uses a per-user key to decrypt the per-book key (which then unlocks the content). (My understanding trails off pretty quickly - I welcome clarifications and corrections!)Įxisting DRM systems embed in encrypted files a description of rights and encryption keys (for epub these are xml files in the META-INF folder). The second alternative, not yet realized, would be to create an interoperable standard for digital certificates for encrypted epub files.īut before describing the alternatives in more detail, let's describe the high-level design of the current dominant system. So what are the alternatives to the existing Amazon/Apple/Adobe system? One alternative that has some real-world traction is the idea that books should be read from the web, in browsers. And he very usefully reminds us that e-book "portability can be implemented without eliminating DRM". Eric Hellman's latest post shows how needless is the publishers' acquiescence to that lock-in, the real core of Amazon's monopolistic (but not collusive!) power. Joe Wickert launched a manifesto calling for a "unified ebook market" avoiding the vendor lock-in that is one of the main problems with today's e-book reality. First Charles Stross pointed out on how publishers' insistence on DRM has put them at the mercy of Amazon. At last, at last, the US/UK e-book conversation is getting around to questions of the basic architecture of how we sell, buy, share and keep our e-books. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |