[3552] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Security scheme for e-books
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jay Holovacs)
Tue Oct 27 09:05:46 1998
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 06:57:09 -0500
To: John R Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
From: Jay Holovacs <holovacs@idt.net>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSI.3.91.981027044258.8056F-100000@ivan.iecc.com>
At 04:43 AM 10/27/98 -0500, John R Levine wrote:
>
>> Somehow I doubt publishers will be willing to provide this capability.
>> While we have long had this right with books, it has been strongly resented
>> by publishers, and now that they have the chance to create a new medium
>> without this functionality, they are unlikely to build it in.
>
>Perhaps, but I think it's unlikely they'd write off the entire library
>market. Libraries buy an awful lot of books.
>
The issue here is of redistribution (sale or lending of used books). If the
content is keyed to one ebook viewer, that will not be possible. To make
books redistributable would require additional features (technologically
possible) which I doubt the vendors will implement. I can guarantee, that
when these e-publications finally hit the market, the fine print will refer
to *license*, not purchase of the works involved.
[A side rant here: When you rent (license) a home, as opposed to purchasing
it, the landlord retains ownership, but with that ownership comes
additional legal responsibility that would not occur had he sold the home
outright. In the software biz, however, the suppliers typically "license"
instead of sell the product so they can maintain control, but at the same
time disavow any additional legal obligations that might occur from
retaining ownership..imagine if landlords could get away with that]
This has little to do with the library market. Libraries mostly buy paper
books because they are universally useable by everyone. Even books on CD
are essentially hardware, like paper books. (I cannot picture libraries
having all these electronic books ready to download into customer's ebooks,
at least in the forseable future.)
Jay
