Mark,
Well, the situation isn't QUITE as dire as it may have seemed: <http://ematter.fatbrain.com/ematter/support/faq_034.asp>
Basically, they admit it can't be 100% foolproof, but essentially ask those of us who can crack it to help them improve it.
Not quite sure how I feel about that, especially given Wes Felter's observation that "it's trivial for the 2% who can crack it to make it available to the other 98%."
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark S. Miller
[SMTP:markm@caplet.com]
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2000 11:04 AM
To: Paul Snively
Cc: 'e-lang@eros-os.org'; Mark Stefik
Subject: Re: Yet Another Security Groaner
At 09:23 AM 1/17/00 , Paul Snively wrote:
>People still just don't get it... see
<http://www.clbooks.com/pressreleases/e_debut.html>.
Well, some don't get it, but I'd guess some have simply decided to lie. A
lot of this work derives from Mark Stefik's earlier work on electronic
"rights" management for content such as books. Stefik (my old boss at
PARC)
has always been scrupulously honest about the limitations of what such
technologies can do. In particular, I've seen him repeatedly quoted on the
inability of software-only "solutions" to offer any meaningful impediment
to
copying.
In everything else I've read, I've never seen any other advocate of these
technologies make a similar admission. Since Stefik's work was their
starting
point, one has to wonder whether this might be something worse than the
usual cluelessness.
Cheers,
--MarkM