doron's blaahg

Hello,

slashdot is also a big google fan!!

Massive Google Related things are promoted!!!

slashdot = gives back everything google presents in
their news , without thinking
= google = dummy ??

if that's not DRM i dont know what is. google has designed the data that you download to your computer so that it's difficult to do as you please with the parts that are somebody else's "intellectual property". that's exactly what DRM is, it doesnt have to involve fancy crypto.

also, allowing 3rd parties to remotely modifiy the behavior of your software is easily a security hole if there is no legitimate need for it and you didnt consent. security holes dont have to involve data theft or execution of code or destructive behavior. your neighbor aiming a tv remote across the street through your window and changing the channel on your tv is a security hole.

it's great that you want to bash slashdot, but let's not be pedantic about other people's word choices.

don't like it - don't it (google print, that is)

meant to say: don't use it!

not that there's anything wrong with google's print service or people have anything to complain about, but

"dont like it - don't use it"

sounds nice, but doesnt really make any sense. suppose the powers-that-be set things up such that you have to enter your social security number + drivers ID to log on to the internet. dont like it - dont use it, right? wrong. that rhetoric only makes sense if there are competing services that are similar in quality, ease of use, etc.

DRM means rights management - in this case, you have 0 rights. DRM is used to make sure that say if you buy a piece of music, only you listen to it and you don't go spreading it around.

All Google (and Amazon) want to do is help you decide what book to buy, and make sure its hard to get at the images.

"you have 0 rights"

not quite. if a person had no rights to the book excerpts google displays then it would be illegal for google to do so. but fair use rights are involved. there are also the rights of the copyright holders, which is what google's "DRM" is trying to protect.

also, there doesnt have to be a purchase for restrictions to be called DRM. apple itunes and other services have given away songs for free but crippled with DRM so the song expires after a set date or is only playable on certain devices and so on.

also, DRM is really "digital restrictions management". marketing types naturally dont want to call it that, nobody wants to buy a product with "restrictions" built in. but that's exactly what it is: it's not rights management, as the law and the rights involved are far more nuanced than a computer program short of AI could handle, so DRM software and mechanisms just apply broad restrictions on what you can do with a piece of content. DRM manages sets of restrictions, not rights. it's much clearer to think of it that way.

"you have 0 rights."

Complete crap. You have received the images. You can do absolutely anything you like to them which is not restricted by copyright law or a contract you signed.

Sounds like plenty of rights. Certainly enough to print off the whole book for your personal use by getting all the pages with a distributed dictionary attack on the search terms... hard to spot if done over a reasonable period - eg with a p2p app that gets you a book in a couple of days.

Google expected this. They ( unlike some people) probably understand information theory... People who can be arsed to do this will do it. Googles challenge is to downplay this to the publishers, and get enough real users for serious advertising revenue. Good luck to them.

We can get a book from the library, scan and OCR it within a couple of hours anyway.