King's e-Book Pirated Due to Lax Security

Posted By: Ed on Wednesday, April 05, 2000 9:21:45 AM

According to CNN, Glassbook, the distributor of Stephen King's e-book "Riding the Bullet," accused the publisher, Simon & Schuster, of rushing the novella out before proper security measures could be made. As a result, pirates have been able to crack the 40-bit security in the reader that was distributed with the e-book and make the content available for free.
In a prime example of locking the barn door after the horses have escaped, a new version with more robust 64-bit security will be out next week.

According to Glassbook President Len Kawall there have been 400,000 to 500,000 legal downloads of the book compared to what he estimates to be "a few" pirated copies.

Adds Kawall, "It is not the end of e-books. Our job is to make it more pleasurable to purchase the product from a legitimate source."

Though their is, at present, no reader for the Palm capable of reading a legal copy of the King novella, the e-book industry has tremendous growth potential, according to this C|net article.

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no reader for Palm?

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/5/2000 12:01:42 PM #

what about the PeanutPress version?

RE: no reader for Palm?

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/5/2000 4:38:07 PM #

I ve read it on my palm in doc format, had to dig the newsgroups though ;)

RE: no reader for Palm?

Ed @ 4/5/2000 7:36:36 PM #

You are absolutely correct. A version for the Palm is available here: http://www.peanutpress.com/book.cgi/0743204670/0673065-64254-83191" CLASS=NEWS TARGET=_NEW>http://www.peanutpress.com/book.cgi/0743204670/0673065-64254-83191

Are people that stupid?

Alex @ 4/5/2000 4:34:06 PM #

I dont understand why cant people understand the principle
that if you can see/hear it, you can copy it! The worst
problem with this, is that they knew that it wasnt secure
but they try to tell the users that they shouldnt even try
to copy it... (of course, they dont want to scare publisher would they?:)

If you want to protect it, no one has to read/hear it, so good luck :-)

What does this have to do with Palm?

Smev @ 4/5/2000 10:38:37 PM #

The glassbook reader is for pc, not palm.

RE: What does this have to do with Palm?

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/6/2000 7:48:05 AM #

A few more horror stories like this and publishers and authors could get scared away from digital publishing entirely. I can't see any author saying "It's ok to put my book out for the Palm but not for PC".

Doh!

renaissance59 @ 4/6/2000 5:17:25 AM #

It's "... after the horse has bolted" not "... escaped"

News you can use

BG @ 4/6/2000 11:01:36 AM #

So where are all those pirate copies hiding?

RE: News you can use

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/6/2000 6:58:57 PM #

My God, it's only like $2.95. If you're really interested in reading it, drop 3 bucks and buy and buy it.

If you want to pirate some $500 microsoft software, feel free. But the rest of the world needs to make some money. And it's not like they're asking for a lot.

3 bucks is a LOT!

Mancini @ 4/12/2000 6:32:30 AM #

3 bucks is in fact almost nothing, if you compare with ordinary software. BUT this is a 60+ book (that fit in +/- 30 normal pocketbook pages) with a sub-standard Stephen King story. Looking at regular pocketbooks (way more expensive to sell) it seems that 3 bucks is a LOT. I only read it because Amazon gave it for free (in Glassbook Reader format). BUT a book MUST be portable, e-book or not. I will never pay for a book that forces me to stay in front of a PC.

Palm Software on sale