[Qgis-developer] Data encryption

Alex Mandel tech_dev at wildintellect.com
Wed Jan 29 10:45:35 PST 2014


I think authorities have tried to do this in the past with poor quality
images and pdfs where all the layers are sandwiched together and not
meant to be disassembled. So that the only way to extract the data
beyond viewing is hand digitizing and recoding of the attributes.

I agree with Denis though that a more sensible approach is to just state
the time limits on the data. Or you can be nefarious like some road
atlas producers and seed small fictitious data that makes it easier to
catch people using the data improperly.

Enjoy,
Alex

On 01/29/2014 12:22 AM, Denis Rouzaud wrote:
> The best way is to provide your data with a proper disclaimer of use.
> 
> Trying to add some lock is just useless. Anyone who will really wants to
> fully get or edit the data will still be able to do it.
> You will just make your bundle less usable, and loose some time/money at
> trying to implement this.
> 
> How do you think that the survey services are publishing the land
> registry? For sure not on DVDs with DRM. But their data has time frame
> validity and is supposed to be read-only....
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Denis
> 
> 
> On 29. 01. 14 09:10, Zoltan Szecsei wrote:
>> On 2014/01/29 09:59, Alex Mandel wrote:
>>> On 01/28/2014 10:53 PM, Zoltan Szecsei wrote:
>>>> Hi List,
>>>> I have a friend, not in South Africa, who has a need to bundle raster &
>>>> vector data with a map viewer, so that the entire package can be
>>>> deployed via a DVD.
>>>> The catch is that usage of the data bundled with this DVD, needs to
>>>> expire after 12 months.
>>>>
>>>> So, does anyone know of a QGIS based solution - even if it comes with a
>>>> proprietary encryption module that allows for an expiry date?
>>>>
>>>> I'd be curious if anyone has implemented such solution.
>>>>
>>>> I also think that there may be a possibility of fee for someone to
>>>> develop such capability.
>>>>
>>>> Regards and thanks,
>>>> Zoltan
>>>>
>>>>
>>> That's a pretty messed up product I wouldn't go anywhere near. But short
>>> answer is this isn't a QGIS specific thing it's DRM which the Video Game
>>> industry has plenty of solutions for, most of which are completely
>>> circumventable by smart computer users.
>>>
>>> Enjoy,
>>> Alex
>> Largely my thoughts too - but I didn't think of steering him towards
>> the gaming industry.....
>>
>> Just to narrow down the prejudice a bit, what about a situation where
>> a local authority is giving out a specific dataset that needs to be
>> current, or at least non-editable?
>>
>> I expect one could watermark the datasets with a routine that the
>> source-code is not available for. This watermark could have multiple
>> date-stamps that would "help" in not being able to turn the computer
>> clock back - and the data encryption could render it useless for
>> anything except the viewer it came with - in QGIS case, the inclusion
>> of a hook to the binary subroutine that encrypted (ok, messed up :-) )
>> the data.
>>
>> Just a thought to stir up some discussion.
>>
>> Z
>>
> 
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