CHAPTER 19
Hashing and the Secure Distribution of Digital Media
In the end, the only passion is money!, attributed to W. Somerset Maugham.
The theory of Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property, from The Communist Manifesto (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
If Karl had made a lot of money instead of writing about capitalism · · · , we would have all been much better off!, attributed to Karl Marx’s mother.
19.1 OVERVIEW
The use of hash functions to secure the distribution of digital media has direct commercial and financial implications. In the information age, digital media, including music, video, software, books, and data, can offer a high value to its creators, owners, and users. In its native form, the information can be copied, distributed, or altered without the owners or users of the information being aware. However, techniques are now available to limit these activities when desired, and many of these techniques rely heavily on hash functions.
There are at least two different commercial objectives for secure distribution techniques; first, creators and owners of digital media often want to limit the copying, distribution, and use of their assets, and they want to require users to pay for their use. Second and perhaps even more importantly, users of digital media, particularly software, are often concerned about the reliability and authenticity of the data. Among other reasons, unauthorized modifications to software might ...
