Sunday 11 February 2007

Pic of the day: Righteous wrath! OK, I don't actually feel that angry, but it would be understandable if I did, I think.

More DRM chaos

A few days ago I had to reset my pocket PC to factory values. That sucks. It sucks more than it would have needed to. Here's why.

It all started because I turned on the pocket PC by trying to take a photo. The same has happened before when I turned it on by trying to make a phone call. Yes, my iPAQ is both a mobile phone, a camera, and a pocket PC. (An MP3 player too, for that matter, but there is no way to start that directly without turning on the PC first.) Now I had a password on it, which I entered when I turned it on after more than half an hour. This seems like a good idea, but the problem is that the password protection collides with the camera feature. It accepts the password, but does not proceed, because it was not turned on the way the password program obviously had expected, the normal ON button. So the machine hangs completely. A normal reset did not help, so eventually I did a hard reset, which sets the machine back to factory values.

The data I had stored on the memory card were still there, of course. Lots and lots of notes I have taken over the life of this iPAQ and the previous, which had the memory card before it. A couple dozen e-books are there too. What wasn't there, I found out, was the e-book reader. That was installed in the main memory.

Well, no biggie. I could always download MS Reader again from the Internet. I was at work when all this happened, so I used the portable I have taken there. Installation was a snap. But installation is not enough, not if you want to read "secure" e-books. That is basically a form of DRM, digital rights management. The software checks that you have a registered copy of the book and of the reader software and that they match, so basically that you are the rightful owner. I don't have a problem with that, I think it is overblown but it is a minor inconvenience. Usually.

The thing is, you can only register MS Reader a limited number of times on the same person. This also makes sense, since otherwise the whole town could register the same user and read the same books at the same time. (Physical books can be read by an unlimited number of people, but only one at a time. Or two, if they are very close, I guess.)

But with my pocket PC resetting every now and then, this was my last install of MS Reader. OK, I better make sure it does not hang again. I changed the password protection to only kick in after 24 hours, which with my pattern of usage means I would have to lose it for the password to kick in. So far, so good, though not as good as it was before. No, the real problem was when I downloaded the new e-book from fictionwise.com. Rather than just downloading it as a .lit file, which it is, the download screen started some program on the portable that accepts the file and moves it to a certain pre-defined library folder on the hard disk (which is set up in the background without asking you). This again requires that MS Reader is installed on the PC. Not the Pocket PC, which was where I wanted to read it. No, no! Must be MS Reader on the PC, or you are a thief and a scoundrel and can not be allowed to download our precious e-book (never mind that I would not be able to read it without a valid registered Reader).

I could not install MS Reader on the portable PC since I had used up my number of installs. Luckily you can request extra installs, though you have to give them a reason for it. Unluckily, the use of MS Reader (like so many MS things) is based around MS Passport, which again is based on your e-mail address as unique identifier. And back when I registered my Passport, my valid e-mail address was itlandm@online.no. Since the last couple years, this address does not exist. So in order to read my books which I have bought and paid for, I am supposed to go back to the most expensive ISP in Scandinavia, whom I have no use for in any other way. Uhm, I don't think so.

It all ended happily, since I had an old PC with a registered MS Reader, which I had not yet thrown away. So now I can enjoy my books again. But if my pocket PC crashes badly again, or if I ever in my remaining days (may they be many) decide to buy a new pocket PC, I will no longer be able to read my books, even though I still have them. Hopefully there will be some piracy solution at that time. By and large, pirates seem to be my last best hope for justice these days.

And that was my sermon today, dear choir.