[free-sklyarov] Better crypto for eBooks?

[Dave Sherohman]

On Tue, Jul 24, 2001 at 03:59:18PM -0400, Mike Schiraldi wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 24, 2001 at 02:51:46PM -0500, Dave Sherohman wrote:
> > The application refuses to send the (still encrypted) data to any driver
> > that it can't verify as also being S.A.P.-compliant.
> 
> If the audio is still encrypted, why does the driver care who it passes it
> to, since only the speakers can presumably decrypt it?

Noncompliant software could analyze the encrypted data (or record it for
later analysis) to provide a way to decrypt it.  "Compliant" in this case
seems to just mean "signed a contract promising not to do anything the
publisher hasn't explicitly agreed to with the data".

As for bypassing this with a microphone in front of the speakers, the
content industry doesn't seem to think it can control analog copying
yet, plus it's a lower priority since analog copies are inherently
imperfect.  Digital is what scares them because it can be used to make
perfect copies.  It seems to me that the entire point of SAP is to
ensure that an unencrypted digital copy of the data is never allowed to
exist; include the ability to lock the encryption to specific hardware,
and this would make unauthorized digital copies impossible.  (Until
someone breaks the encryption, of course.)

And, naturally, this is all for your good and mine.  They would never
want to screw us over...

-- 
With the arrest of Dimitry Sklyarov it has become apparent that it is not
safe for non US software engineers to visit the United States. - Alan Cox
"To prevent unauthorized reading..."         - Adobe eBook reader license