[free-sklyarov] locking up books

[Eric Eldred]

> Message: 10
> Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 16:22:43 -0400
> From: Seth Finkelstein <sethf at sethf.com>
> To: free-sklyarov at zork.net
> Cc: Eric Eldred <ericeldred at usa.net>
> Subject: Re: [free-sklyarov] locking up books
> 
> Eric Eldred wrote:
> > 
> > It is hard for me to understand how companies
> > such as Adobe expect to lock up books with DRMs.
> 
> 	It doesn't have to be perfect. It just
> has to protect the business model so it is
> profitable. This is something techies 
> DESPERATELY need to understand. What is at
> stake is not an intellectual puzzle. That
> is, saying "You can't make an unsolvable puzzle"
> (== unbreakable crypto), is off-point.
> 
> 	What is at stake is a business model
> protected by both law and technology. Even
> if neither is perfect, as long as the outcome
> is profitable, that's good enough.
> 
> 	Many people on this list argue in effect,
> that because the technology used as been relatively
> weak, the corporations are somehow in error for
> also relying on law, and should just get better
> technology.
> 
> 	I have a feeling that they'd reply that in terms
> of cost-benefit, they reached diminishing returns via
> technology, but the law is doing wonderfully well
> for them.
> 
> -- 
> Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  sethf at sethf.com  http://sethf.com

Yes, these companies are trying to do with the law what
they fail to do with technology.  But the impact on us
technologists is severe.  It means that cryptographic
scientists can't even disclose publicly what they found
wrong with weak schemes by companies such as Adobe or
the DVD-CCA.

And when speaking to the people on the street we should
not overlook the big picture.  Not one of them ever asked
Adobe to lock up books for them.  Every one of them would
prefer to buy a book for keeps and to enjoy all fair use
of it.  Publishers will not be putting out ebooks in PDF
format or under Adobe's DRMs; they will instead move to
Microsoft LIT format--even worse.  Instead, we should
remind publishers that readers don't want books locked up
in the first place.  Neither do authors.  It is only the
big publishers and their technologic accomplices who are
the ones who want to maintain their obsolete business
models by locking up books.  

I say boycott all locked-up ebooks!
Read free electronic books instead.  See my site
http://www.eldritchpress.org - two ebooks I "converted"
from Microsoft .lit format are at
http://www.eldritchpress.org/wwone/threes.html
http://www.eldritchpress.org/rl/bigtown.htm

(The DMCA prevents me from telling anybody else how
to do this or "aid and abet" anyone gaining access
in any "unauthorized" way, even though the underlying
content of the ebooks is in the public domain.)






____
"Eric"    Eric Eldred   mailto:ericeldred at usa.net
http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net   "Eldritch Press"

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