While some of us are happy to discuss these topics, they are totally
tangential to the list at this point, so please let's move further
discussion of this topic off the list lest Alden be forced to use his
mighty sword and cleave us from the list ;-)
Arle
On May 20, 2008, at 9:12 AM, Brian W. Brown wrote:
It can be done,
It can be bullet proof
I am with Greg on this one. Watermarking or other DRM schema are
fundamentally flawed. They all provide the user (or "attacker"
depending
on your point of view) with ciphertext, the cipher and the key.
Obscured,
perhaps, but it is all there and the "secret" falls apart.
Cory Doctorow put it very well in a talk on the subject when he said,
"Here's the social reason that DRM fails: keeping an honest user
honest is
like keeping a tall user tall." DRM stops Joe down the hall from
making a
clean copy, but to the sophisticated user the Watermark is easy to
remove.
The entire talk is a must read if you really care about any of this
stuff:
http://www.dashes.com/anil/stuff/doctorow-drm-ms.html
- Brian
--
Brian W. Brown
Director, Electronic Student Services
Room 269, John Thomas Hall
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
Office: 828-262-7124
http://ess.appstate.edu/
http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu/
