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Amazon Sued Over E-Book DRM Patent
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Discovery Communications, the parent company of the Discovery Channel, is alleging that Amazon's Kindle e-book reader infringes upon their patent for DRM-encumbered e-books (Discovery's complaint, PDF). The patent in question was filed back in 1999 and issued in 2007 — coincidentally one day after Kindle 1.0 went on the market — and has claims for DRM implemented with a great many particular symmetric key ciphers and key exchange algorithms, (the patent has 171 claims). Unlike most software patents, this one goes into quite a lot of detail about how the encryption is to be performed. But it will still be interesting to see if it can pass the 'machine or transformation' test now that In Re Bilski is being accepted as precedent. After all, it seems like all of these encryption and e-book distribution schemes could be run on a general-purpose PC, so is the 'invention' actually tied to a 'particular machine or apparatus' just because an e-book 'viewer' (not to mention 'home system', 'library', and 'kiosk') happens to be specified in the patent's claims? Or can the encryption of an e-book be claimed as some kind of 'transformation' when the law in that area is especially murky — when no one knows how In Re Bilski may affect the precedent of In Re Schrader?"
...so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Sell e-books with DRM to protect copyrights and violate a patent. Or sell without DRM without violating the patent and allow anyone to violate the copyrights. Anyone have anyway of pulling this on the record companies?
If the patent is upheld then amazon appears to have two choices, sell e-books without DRM and get yelled at by the author's guild or sell with DRM and have to pay licensing agreements. Should be fun to watch from the sidelines, the only problem is who do you cheer for?
unless "transformation" applies solely to physical artifacts directly observable to human senses, or such senses augmented by things like microscopy etc.
DRM undoubtedly entails a transformation: from a digital object in unprotected form to one in protected form.
I think, though, the source of that sense of absurdity we all feel is that this is yet another attempt to patent a pre-existing technology when used for a range of its originally intended uses. Encryption technology exists, in part, to control when and how recipients of information use that information. DRM is just a specific instance of this.
Back in the 1990s there were tons of really insipid patents on using GPS to locate things in various contexts. They were stupid because GPS was a technology specifically designed to provide location data for various uses, e.g., navigating in the field, guiding bombs, etc. My boss used to come in about once a quarter and toss a sheaf of papers on my desk describing some GPS related patent he wanted me to look at. I'd pick it up and tell him to send it to the lawyers because (a) it was almost certainly one of those "use GPS in such and so context" patents which meant it was (b) almost surely improperly granted, but was (c) intended to shake down honest users of an obvious idea, which would (c) be a hell of a lot easier to do for us if I so much as glanced at the damned thing.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Yeah, the patent is a monster that attempts to cover a hell of a lot of territory. It's got 171 claims, and is 97 pages long.
It covers every conceivable distribution channel (kiosks, internet, wireless, cable, device to device, publisher direct, etc.). At quick glance, it also covers encryption at just about every step in the process.
The patent isn't to protect an invention, it's to corner a market.