digital rights restrictions management (DRM), noun

A technology that allows pants to be sold with a filching hand pre-installed in the pocket.

Protect your freedom!

> Here's the new on-line petition at the Downing Street E-Petitions
> web-site. Please consider signing this:
>
> http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/iplayer/

I've signed it, but I have absolutely no faith in the petitions doing any
good - most petitions don't get a response, and the ones that do always
get a "we're right, you're wrong, we're going to continue doing this
anyway" response.

Personally, I have no interest in iPlayer being available for multiple
platforms - as far as I'm concerned the BBC has a duty to be platform
agnostic and that means using an open standard so that anyone can write a
player for *any* platform. Using a propriatory format and releasing
players for a select few platforms (e.g. Windows, OS X, Linux) is not
"platform agnostic" - what if I want to play it on my phone or some other
device not running one of those OSes?

The BBC keep claiming that they need DRM for content delivered over IP but
that content delivered over DVB should be free-to-air - this doesn't make
any sense to me. You can restrict content delivered over IP to more or
less the same population as the DVB stream covers by restricting delivery
to only UK IP addresses. Sure, someone in the UK can proxy the content
and deliver it to someone outside the UK, but they could do that with DVB
just as easilly anyway.

So from what I can tell, all the reasoning for needing DRM is unfounded -
if you need DRM for IP delivery, why not for DVB too?
lifted off the swlug mailing list

No comment required...

FSFE started drm.info - a collaborative information platform. Collaborative + information => Drupal. Obviously the designers/developers though so.

While on the topic of DRM - you could check (yes, you Apple fans and iTunes addicts, I'm looking at you, and I'm not blinking) the Deffective by Design campaign. Looks like it has been drupal fueled as well.

If you are inspired, feeling lazy yet subversive, you could tag appropriate, that is products encouraging/using DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) with the defectivebydesign tag on amazon.

Protect Freedom #1: Eliminate DRM

Stikr aktion at factoryjoe's flickr garage.

Today is a good day for the democracy. The foundations of what is known in some circles as the ministry of information has been laid.

Victory! Hail the righteous forces of control of chaos.

From now on, if required, our information, whom with and when we had a chat, will be available for scrutiny, as it should be, by the competent protectors of law and order.

Victory! Let the forces of darkness tremble in fear.

On this historical day, when the bloomers went hunting, the data retention directive was adopted by the Eur

Reading this proposed french law gives me shivers. Well, if you thought that the proposed EU data-retention directive is bad, it's extensions devilish how would you classify this? The proud republic is just about to churn this dictatorial law, infringing just about most of my intellectual human rights I can think of. Ok, my interests lie in computers more than most, but still, that is an ugly piece of legislation. Any free/open source software becoming illegal? Well, recently NYC2123 were mentioning that, in relation to Windows Moto Edition, but that's cyberpunk, this is reality. Whose sick mind can cojure such an appaling piece of legislation? Does that anonymous bunch of bureaucrats have a concept of what knowledge is? Does that bunch of people have any idea how much they are going to damage the French software industry itself, some of the best wares in the OSS world come from France, by the way.

Well, things start to get a comic appeal. Sony infringes the copyright of a LGPL software to create their rootkit, which allegedly is used to protect its property, read music they distribute, but in reality stops you using your iPod, which in turn Apple has made to work only with their own service - iTunes.

Noodles. I won't even go further. It is just ugly. Just rephrase it and you'll get the outline of a Z-rated gangster movie. You've got the hustlers, you've got the hard men, you've got the "my patch".

Tho read the whole shebang just go to dewinter or slashdot. Sit back and enjoy.

DRM's power grab gets more naked - I think this week may be when the supposed middle ground of DRM vanishes. Walt Mossberg and Chris...

Sad, but true. I do think it is a good thing that the DRM middle ground vanishes, from our eyes, since it never really existed. At least now the lines are drawn.

Although it is just one battle, the DRM, or making sure DRM gets into the big bucket in the sky is important. And here is why:

• it breaks stuff - your computer, your equipment, your entertainment