Ed Felten: Why Unbreakable Codes Don’t Make Unbreakable DRM
Ed Felten, Freedom To Tinker: “[Imagine] that you can build an impregnable armored truck. This truck can carry bags of money anywhere; and as long as you keep the doors closed nobody can rob the truck. [But robbers] can strike when you open the doors at WalMart or at the Bank. The armored car doesn’t solve your problem because it doesn’t provide end-to-end protection. [–––] The same is true for encryption-based DRM. [–––] The content needs to be unwrapped at the endpoint, and the system doesn’t control the endpoint. The content is vulnerable, regardless of how strong your codes are.”