Subject: Re: copyright protection From: dowjone!rexb (Rex Ballard) Date: Mon, 14 Mar 94 10:48:47 EST

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> Bob Weber: 
> I'm aware of two cd-rom related hardware products for copyright protection 
> offered by Wave and by Infosafe. There is a software product offered by
> Softlock, Inc.  

> Does anyone know of other hardware/software products that (claim) to
> offer copyright protection?

The products you describe above are copy protection schemes, not copyright
protection schemes.  There is an important distinction.  Software capable
of cloning itself and attaching audit trails of serial numbers, and
encryption schemes and content registration on send and receive are
more effective in copyright protection.

People are more willing to ignore schemes which identify copies and
send "registration" information unobtrusively.  They are more inclined
to try to defeat copy protection schemes which prevent them from accessing
information.

Registration can be used to quickly identify distributors who are distributing
large quantities of pirated content.  It can identify potential subscribers
who may be willing to pay a "bulk license fee" to a copyright "broker" (similar
to ASCAP or BMI).

A truly undefeatable form of encryption is illegal (RSA and DES must be
crippled for export).

SoftLock is a good method of authenicating users.  It is also a good way
to register and manage royalty distributions.




From rexb@dowv Wed Mar 16 11:06:46 1994