Brave New World: Hard and Soft DRM: Part 2.

What we have in the physical world today is ‘Soft DRM’. We print a page in the front matter of the book which informs all of the copyright licence and who owns it etc. Whether it is a traditional notice or a creative commons licence, the statement is made and the rendition is clearly covered by it. It is ‘soft’ in that it is not enforced by technology, only law.

In a digital book we can also state the licence, but we also recognise the ease of the opportunity to copy, distribute and break the licence. So is there any options that can aid a softer approach to digital copyright enforcement that may reduce the risk of copyright infringement but be better than no DRM at all?

The obvious technology is one watermarking. Watermarking has already proved its worth in the audio and media markets which when used has not resulted mass infringement.

Continues @http://bookseller-association.blogspot.com

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