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Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

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Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#21
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems about as good as can be expected for shuttering a digital store. There have been plenty of others that have not closed with such generous terms (any Plays For Sure™ store, Nintendo Virtual Console, etc.). For years I've thought that there needs to be precedent for the right of first sale extending to digital purchases, which would help in these situations. As a licensee of a digital work, format shifting s…

Digital rights management is the only application I can think of that stands to benefit from blockchain. (Other than money laundering, of course.)

A blockchain would work but is not necessary, and such a scheme would just pushes the storage and computational burden of the bookkeeping onto other users of the same chain. It still wouldn't help you if no provider were willing to honor your entitlement, which is what's going on here. You could achieve the same effect, and have a very similar set of failure modes, with digital signatures and emailing product keys or QR codes or whatnot into people's emails.

A few months ago, news broke that UltraViolet [1] would shut down. It was a meta-DRM scheme that, for all practical purposes, was equivalent to a mapping of 'Email Address' -> 'Set of Entitlements'. Various motion picture rightsholders and digital media-serving providers integrated with it, so your rights could be imported and exported into their central list and grow over time. Although the service cost money to run, its decommissioning and the aftermath of your entitlements is a question of political will, and not a question of any technical reality. Vudu is one of the very few providers through whom you can bridge your rights over to its competitor-turned-replacement, Disney's Movies Anywhere.

If there were the political will to do so, the damn hashmap of rights could've transferred directly, but it didn't. Altering the storage scheme would've altered the basic economics of UltraViolet's hosting, but it's not an armor against studio after studio withdrawing from issuing and honoring such rights, as it actually happened.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UltraViolet_(system)

Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#22
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Digital rights management is the only application I can think of that stands to benefit from blockchain. (Other than money laundering, of course.)

A blockchain would work but is not necessary, and such a scheme would just pushes the storage and computational burden of the bookkeeping onto other users of the same chain. It still wouldn't help you if no provider were willing to honor your entitlement, which is what's going on here. You could achieve the same effect, and have a very similar set of failure modes, with digital signatures and emailing product keys or…

I guess I was imagining something decentralized where you wouldn’t need a “provider” beyond the author, the chain, and maybe some sort of “smart contract.”

My blockchain knowledge pretty much starts and ends with the legal aspects of cryptocurrency but I guess I was imagining a system where Ernest Hemingway, for example, could upload his latest novel (or maybe a hash?) to the chain and sell access tokens. So any time a user tries to access the file it can only be read if they have an access token for that novel’s ISBN.

Once the book is on blockchain it’s theoretically there forever, right? (Not sure how this works exactly - does at least one other machine on the chain need to be running?) But I don’t think it could be removed as easily as shutting down a server like Microsoft did. Or be censored/restricted by a government.

I suppose you’re right that there would still need to be an iBooks/Kindle type centralized reader/token wallet app or else it would be a total pain for users.

Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#23
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems about as good as can be expected for shuttering a digital store. There have been plenty of others that have not closed with such generous terms (any Plays For Sure™ store, Nintendo Virtual Console, etc.). For years I've thought that there needs to be precedent for the right of first sale extending to digital purchases, which would help in these situations. As a licensee of a digital work, format shifting s…

Digital rights management is the only application I can think of that stands to benefit from blockchain. (Other than money laundering, of course.)

I personally wouldn't want launder money (or really conduct any business) through a system with an immutable, public ledger.

Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#24
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people are probably excited to be getting refunded for books they have already read.

Probably the refund does not account for inflation, though. 500 dollars today may not have the same purchase power of 500 dollars a few years ago.

Yes, I am always disappointed when the unexpected refunds for things I considered worthless don't account for inflation.
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