IP: An anonymous programmer has found a way to decrypt Microsoft Reader e-books,

[R. A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


Status:  U
Date: Sat, 01 Sep 2001 08:38:25 -0700
To: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
From: Somebody
Subject: Re: IP: An anonymous programmer has found a way to decrypt
  Microsoft  Reader e-books,

At 05:11 AM 9/1/2001 -0400, you wrote:
> >>Code Breaking
> >>
> >>The decryption program enables purchasers of "owner-exclusive" Microsoft
> >>Reader titles-Microsoft's most highly protected form of e-book-to convert
> >>these titles to unencrypted files viewable on any Web browser. The
> >>program's creator, a U.S. cryptography expert who asked not to be
> >>identified, says he wanted to circumvent the "two-persona" limit, a rule
> >>built into Microsoft Reader at the behest of publishers that allows
> >>purchasers to read the same e-book on up to two devices, but no more.
> >>
> >>Though the decryption program works on any Windows PC, the programmer
> >>hasn't released it, saying he developed it for his personal use. But the
> >>program's existence, together with decryption efforts directed against
> >>e-book formats from other companies, such as Adobe, illustrates the
> >>vulnerabilities in digital rights management schemes. It also promises to
> >>fuel the ongoing debate over the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
> >>under which it is legal in certain circumstances to use-but,
> >>paradoxically, not to make or distribute-software that circumvents
> >>technological copyright protections.

Nahh, nahh, na, nahh.  I know how to break eBooks but I won't tell you.

This childishness about anonymously posting they HAVE a solution but not
anonymously posting THE solution is tiring.

When Niels Ferguson's alleged break came up in some conversations several
thought that by deciding to announce under a meat space identity he placed
his ego before the search for "truth"  (i.e., in effect creating the
"problem" that could have been effectively circumvented via a digitally
signed pseudo anonymous publication, with his true identity being revealed
in the future when the DMCA threat was removed).  So now the situation is
"I did it, it was easy and brilliant but I can't tell you any details."


Bahh!

<somebody>

--- end forwarded text


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'



---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at wasabisystems.com