SiDiM text markers: new DRM scheme for e-book protection

Researchers from Darmstadt Technical University (Germany) have proposed a new kind of DRM protection of electronic text documents SiDiM .

The idea is that unique changes are made to each electronic copy of the book. They then allow you to accurately identify the source of the leak and the dishonest user who leaked the protected work to the public. Marking of electronic books and text documents is carried out at the semantic level: each version is distinguished by a word-synonym, letter, punctuation mark, space, etc.

The abbreviation SiDiM stands for “Sichere Dokumente durch individuelle Markierung”, that is, “Protecting documents with individual labels.”

Apparently, the use of synonyms for setting digital labels in documents is found for the first time. It is not the file itself that is protected, as usual, but the text. Thus, this method of DRM-protection allows you to protect the product even from copy-paste. Moreover, this method is positioned as user-friendly: the buyer gets the book in clear text and can easily convert it to read on any device (now you have to use specialized software for this).
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The development of DRM protection is funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research and is carried out in partnership with several commercial companies, including Juni.com and 4 Readers, the CoSee consortium , and Notos law firm.

If you think about it, then you can get rid of such labels, if you compare three copies of the book - and make one pure modification from them. True, it will work only on condition that each modification is unique and is made only in a single copy of the work. Otherwise you will have to compare not three, but more copies.

Another way to “protect” against such DRM is to find out what specific changes the SiDiM algorithm is able to make to the text. For example, the TorrentFreak edition received a list of 15 changes that are used to mark books. This list is now being sent to authors and publishers to introduce them to the new DRM scheme.