O.K. This may not be the right board for this, but the discussion of DRM is happening here, so it seems right.
In general I am opposed to the various schemes of DRM for a number of reasons. Since the publishers seem to be paying attention to these boards, I thought we might discuss what would make a DRM scheme acceptable. I have no problem with publishers trying to protect their intellectual property. I simply don't find the current attempts to be ones that I am willing to support.
Things that DRM must do to be found acceptable. (Actually protecting the IP is assumed)
1. Protect Personal Information of purchaser.
2. Be transparent. Requiring NO additional effort by user to access the work.
3. Not infringe on the purchasers fair use of the material.
In order to successfully do this, I believe that it needs to be implemented in the following way.
DRM standards need to be created and implemented so that all DRM interfaces with all readers the same way. i.e. 60 companies create DRM schemes, 100 companies create readers, they all work with each other because they all follow the same rules.
Multiple independent third parties need to come into existance to manage users rights. i.e. Adobe, Microsoft, whoever will not know who, as an end user, is buying and using what books. Only these independent third parties will. We are talking about information that even the US government is prohibited from collecting. We should not be willing to give it away, or allow it to be used in ways we don't want it to.
There should be significant criminal and civil penalties for these 3rd parties if they release ANY information about their clients without a court order
After purchase, publishers should not be able to tighten restrictions on any product. They can loosen them, but never tighten them.
I won't go into what kind of technologies would need to be used, because I don't know what would work best. I am just listing what I think are the minimum requirements for acceptable DRM.
In general I am opposed to the various schemes of DRM for a number of reasons. Since the publishers seem to be paying attention to these boards, I thought we might discuss what would make a DRM scheme acceptable. I have no problem with publishers trying to protect their intellectual property. I simply don't find the current attempts to be ones that I am willing to support.
Things that DRM must do to be found acceptable. (Actually protecting the IP is assumed)
1. Protect Personal Information of purchaser.
2. Be transparent. Requiring NO additional effort by user to access the work.
3. Not infringe on the purchasers fair use of the material.
In order to successfully do this, I believe that it needs to be implemented in the following way.
DRM standards need to be created and implemented so that all DRM interfaces with all readers the same way. i.e. 60 companies create DRM schemes, 100 companies create readers, they all work with each other because they all follow the same rules.
Multiple independent third parties need to come into existance to manage users rights. i.e. Adobe, Microsoft, whoever will not know who, as an end user, is buying and using what books. Only these independent third parties will. We are talking about information that even the US government is prohibited from collecting. We should not be willing to give it away, or allow it to be used in ways we don't want it to.
There should be significant criminal and civil penalties for these 3rd parties if they release ANY information about their clients without a court order
After purchase, publishers should not be able to tighten restrictions on any product. They can loosen them, but never tighten them.
I won't go into what kind of technologies would need to be used, because I don't know what would work best. I am just listing what I think are the minimum requirements for acceptable DRM.
