How publishers use encryption to create opportunities
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040586 |
| Pages | 37-41 |
| Published date | 01 April 1995 |
| Date | 01 April 1995 |
| Author | John Sharman |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
How publishers use
encryption to create
opportunities
by John Sharman, Marketing and Sales
Manager,
Ç-Dilla
Ltd
Ç-Dilla
is
one
of
the world's leading
developers
of
encryption
and
access control
software
products,
which
are
used
by a wide
range
of
publishers to protect
and
market
their own
products.
Encryption
and
access
control are becoming increasingly common
in
electronic
publishing;
this
article describes
how
such systems
work,
comments
on why
publishers
need
them
and
interprets
the
implications
for
libraries
and
librarians
as
customers.
Why do publishers use
encryption?
There are three reasons why publishers go to the
effort and expense of encrypting their products:
• to protect them from piracy;
to help market them;
• to enforce their network licences.
What is encryption?
Encryption is simply a method of encoding infor-
mation so that it can be read by selected people
only. The basic techniques go back at least as far
as the ancient Greeks. Julius Caesar had a propri-
etary system. Cryptography is now an established
technology and well understood. Most people
associate 'encryption systems' with 'transit secu-
rity', that is the protection of highly confidential
communications between trusted individuals. This
is the area that has had the most publicity in con-
nection with the Internet. Modem technology has
made such systems very strong and complex.
However from a publisher's perspective they share
certain characteristics:
• One person who can read the material can
pass it to someone else by giving them the
decryption key. This is not usually a
problem for military secrets because the
people concerned wish to maintain the
confidentiality of the documents. However it
is a severe problem for publishers because
they want to be paid by everyone who uses
their information and the users are often
willing to share the information with friends
and colleagues.
• Transit security systems are often complex
to operate because they are designed to
protect communication between a few
individuals. Publishers typically wish to
reach large numbers, in some cases very
large numbers.
• Transit security systems usually have to be
set up in advance. This is not practical for
publishers, since they don't know who their
customers will be.
In short, encryption alone is not enough for a
publisher. They need a complete system which
allows them to control who can access their
information and what they can do with it. The
system must be easy to use, but the controls must
be inaccessible to the end-users. Ç-Dilla's software
based encryption system — CD-Secure2 — is just
such a system.
What are threats for a
publisher?
The very factors that make a CD-ROM so attrac-
tive for electronic publishing also make it
vulnerable to piracy:
• The content of a CD is completely
accessible. Most electronic products use
authoring software which allows many
programmes to read the material.
• CD-ROMs hold very large amounts of
information. The content is therefore very
valuable. However the products are quite
cheap. The publisher therefore has to sell a
large number to make a profit. The publisher
needs to be paid by everyone who uses the
product.
Electronic products are increasingly
VINE
101
(December 1995) —37
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