FITUG e.V. Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

Should We Trust "Trusted Systems?"

http://www.llrx.com/features/trust.htm

Should We Trust "Trusted Systems?"

By Tobe Liebert

Published February 15, 2000

A high-tech solution to the problem of protecting intellectual property on the Internet is quickly becoming reality. And it’s a reality that libraries may not like.

Several companies are busy developing “trusted systems” designed to bring an unprecedented level of security to information exchange on the Internet. Trusted systems are combinations of software and hardware that will not only prevent unauthorized access to content, but introduce a management and tracking model not yet available on the Internet. The term "digital rights management" is also commonly used to describe such systems.

[...]

Mark Stefik, who works at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, gives the following definition of a trusted system: "hardware and software that can be relied on to follow certain rules. Those rules, called usage rights, specify the cost and a series of terms and conditions under which a digital work can be used. . . . Although the techniques that render a system are trustworthy are complex, the result is simple. Publishers can distribute their work -- in encrypted form -- in such a way that it can be displayed or printed only by trusted machines." See "Trusted Systems" at http://www.sciam.com/0397issue/0397stefik.html

If effective trusted systems are developed, and the usage rights to the protected material are controlled by licenses drafted by the content provider, then any information or other digitized material distributed in this manner can be used only in ways approved by the provider.

InterTrust Technologies Corporation is the most visible company developing a trusted system. InterTrust's digital rights management system is a complicated combination of software and hardware. The InterTrust's system works as follows:

Client software must be installed by the user. Once activated, this is referred to as an "InterRights Point." This "InterRights Point" creates a local database which stores the user's rights, transactions and budgets. All of the user's rights (such as the rights to print, transfer, copy or edit) are specified and enforced by this software.

The protected content (whether text, audio, video, etc.) is contained in a "DigiBox Container". This is something like a secure envelope through which the content is sent out over the Internet. The content provider packages the content in a "DigiBox Container" and it can be un-encrypted and accessed only through an "InterRights Point." Thus, both the sender and receiver of content must have the "InterRights Point" software loaded onto their computers.

[...]

The UCITA recognizes the license and the DMCA protects the trusted system.

This would indeed be a dramatic reversal of early predictions of the indefensibility of copyright on the Internet. On the positive side, this strength of protection offered by trusted systems could have the beneficial effect of encouraging authors to make all of their work available electronically. This would, at least, increase the availability of content, if pricing is reasonable. In this new universe, however, libraries would have to completely rethink their existence.

Zurück