Automatic redaction

[bellinghman]

There is a BBC news report on software that stops images being viewed after a particular point.

Oh dear.

Oh dearie me.

What a snake oil promise. Guys, once that image is seen, you can't stop it being kept. All that will be need will be an initial viewing, and then that image has been decoded. How you going to keep the decoded image out of the browser cache, eh? Are you going to reconnect every time the page redraws - if so, that'll really slow down the browser? How do you stop someone capturing it when they can see it?

I really can't see this one flying, somehow.

Comments

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

If it's going to require people to install a plug-in in order to see the images in the first place, I suspect the general attitude will be 'fuck that for a game of soldiers'.

Flash gets installed because it brings something of sufficient value to the recipients. This, though?

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Quite. Actually, what they should have done is sell the concept, patents, and implementation to Adobe, for inclusion in Flash and PhotoShop.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Actually I suspect quite a few of people would install a plugin in order to see their friends naked/doing something embarassing/etc. I don’t expect to be one of them myself though…

[damerell.livejournal.com]

After our detainting of a friend's daughter's lappie at games night, it seems clear that teenage girls will install malware for the purpose of viewing an image whose existence has not even yet been ascertained.

More seriously, some people have already accepted a hideous mass of DRM for music. Why not images too?

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

It's going to install plug-ins at both ends, which is the more amusing thing.

With luck it'll devolve into the telephone dilemma - "why would I buy one of these - who could I call?" - and it'll disappear back into the obscurity it so richly deserves.