Superdistribution

Superdistribution is a digital distribution business model in which a product is made publicly available in encrypted form rather than being sold through a conventional retail or online store, and is then free to be copied and passed from person to person across physical media, the internet or short-range technology such as Bluetooth, with no restriction on who may act as a distributor. What keeps the model commercially viable is that the encryption persists through every copy: the content can circulate as widely as anyone wants to spread it, but the creator retains control over who may actually use it, whether by offering it free for immediate use or by requiring a purchased license, either paid upfront or after a trial period, before it can be unlocked. The concept originated with the Japanese engineer Ryoichi Mori, who first devised it in 1983 under the name Software Service System; his patented 1990 prototype combined three elements that still define superdistribution today, an unremovable cryptographic wrapper that survives copying, a digital rights management system that governs how and when the content may be used, and a secure payment mechanism linking the end user back to the product's owner. The model's basic innovation is to remove the traditional distribution gatekeeper entirely while preserving the creator's control over usage through encryption and licensing rather than through control of physical or digital copies.