Ebook DRM that encourages identity theft gets a huge makeover

Last month I blogged about an ebook publisher called Memletics that had put together a really silly DRM system that output your personally identifying information (including credit-card info) on every page of the PDFs they sold you to discourage you from indiscriminately sharing the book.

This is a visibly bad idea, and once the publisher heard from its readers and EFF, they came up with a much, much better system for accomplishing the same end: putting a unique number on every page of each book that they can use to forensically track copies discovered online, but that don't undermine user-privacy or rights like the right to loan or re-sell your books.

Well-done to Memletics for finding a compromise that does the right thing:

We're pleased to report that in response to our post explaining how this form of "DRM" threatens people's privacy, the publisher has now changed his policy. He says that he's sorry he ever used this method, and will no longer be printing personal information in Memletics books. Instead, he will print a unique serial number in each book. That way, if a book winds up on a filesharing network, he can track who released it. But he won't be putting his customers at risk of identity theft if they share their books with friends or make fair use copies.

For ebook publishers concerned about infringement of digital works, this should be an industry best practice going forward. It protects privacy and promotes fair use, but also gives publishers a way to track people who distribute infringing copies. The system is hardly foolproof, of course. Somebody could buy the book from its original owner and distribute it. Marking strategies are, in general, a weak form of security. However, the serial number solution is a more sensitive and sensible approach for publishers worried about infringement, and EFF applauds Memletics' decision to go forward with it.

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