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"richard marchetti" <blueofnoon@aol.com> wrote in message
news:GtLswC.Lx1@lugnet.com...
> Now, I understand that Readers are created with various levels of • encryption
> -- the purpose of which seems intended to prevent one person from sharing
> the content of a book with another person, or beyond several devices
> belonging to the one person. Given that I was surprised to discover that • it
> is quite easy to cut and paste from MS-Reader:
Cool, a subject I know something about :)
I went on a training course at Microsoft in Seattle last year specifically
on eBook composing and distribution using MS Reader and DAS (Digital Asset
Server, used for secure distribution of MS Reader - and possibly other -
files). Much of what I learnt is still under NDA, but I can help out with
some of the comments you made about encryption levels.
.lit files basically have 5 encryption levels, ranging from nothing
whatsoever allowing the entire text to be lifted in it's original form up to
assymetric key encryption so that the lit file you buy is digitally signed
with your details and your public key generated when you activate MS Reader
so that only your individual Passport ID can be used to read the eBook. In
the middle there are semi-encrypted eBooks, the most common being the
version where your details are added to the lit file and then it's digitally
signed but only with a key that allows all MS Readers to read the file ...
you can distribute the file but it will always have your personal details
stamped into it so it can be traced back to you if necessary, acting as a
deterrent rather than forcing you to have to read the eBook on a machine
activated with your Passport ID.
As to the fear that activating MS Reader will prevent you from opening lit
files you already have, don't worry. The activation process merely generates
a key pair against your Passport ID and installs them on your copy of Reader
so that you can buy and read fully encrypted lit files. It doesn't affect
your ability to open and read lower security level files.
As you haven't yet activated Reader that would explain why you could cut and
paste from the eBooks you already have, as there it's likely that the only
security is a digital signature to prevent tampering with the original file,
and additional properties to prevent copy, paste, and other similar actions
will not have been enabled. Once you activate Reader and buy a fully secured
eBook you'll find that you can only read it, all edit style actions will be
disabled.
The lit format actually seems really good - where PDF is basically an image
format, Reader combines tagged text, images, and fonts into the file which
are decompressed and rendered at run time. This makes it easy to format
books that are readable on portrait and landscape screens, although as an
author you can format the pages so that they look the same on any device.
If you have any more questions about MS Reader then let me know and I'll see
what I'm allowed to reveal :) Failing that the MS Reader site at
http://www.microsoft.com/reader has quite a bit of content. And if you
think Tablet PCs are too bulky to be used for reading eBooks then you might
want to hold your judgement until some of the devices I got to look at make
it to market (or their successors!) as there were some neat pieces of kit
designed primarily to be electronic books. I've also played with MS Reader
on Compaq iPaqs and the HP Jornada - despite the small screen the ClearType
in MS Reader makes it pretty easy to read on those LCD screens.
Dan
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