2008, the year D.R.M. hits your T.V. December 7, 2007
Recently many television subscribers have started worrying about whether or not they will continue getting what they pay for. High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) has begun rolling out through many service providers and could be in use very soon. While this will only apply for premium channels and pay-per-views for now, who knows where it could extend. The service providers can not really be blamed for this as they all have contracts they have to abide by if they wish to continue providing channels to their customers. The content providers have mandated this protection if the service provider wishes to continue showing their channels or pay per-view-movies. (more…)
Boycott Regal Cinemas August 9, 2007
Fair Use Day is joining the call for a boycott of Regal Cinemas .
Jhannet Sejas was celebrating her 19th birthday with her boyfriend when she took a 20 second video clip of the movie “Transformers” to show to her 13-year-old brother. Minutes later the Marymount University sophomore was hauled off to jail for illegally recording a motion picture.
This is not the kind of world I want to leave to my children. This isn’t the kind of world I grew up in. This isn’t the kind of world they deserve to live in. Things should get better for our youngest generation of people. This is just sad and ridiculous. What will a boycott accomplishment? It will send a clear message. Treat us like criminals and we will stop coming to your theater.
We have the responsibility to make sure this doesn’t happen again. This young lady did not intend to distribute 20 seconds of a video for monetary gains. She just wanted to show her brother. Do ya think he will want to spend money to see it now?
You can find Regal Cinemas in your area here
More on the story…
Free Culture @ NYU Boycott Regal Cinemas
Slashfilm.com Teen Arrested for Recording 20 Second Movie Clip
Washingtonpost.com Out of the Theater, Into the Courtroom
BoingBoing.net Boycott Regal Cinemas for suing over 20-second clip
Consumerist.com Regal Cinemas Facing Boycott After Pressing Charges Again Teen “Pirate”
Free our Cell Phones! July 14, 2007
These devices are manufactured with great features, most of which are disabled or deleted by Cellphone companies. Please help take action to stop this violation of our Fair Use of the hardware we purchase.
Apple touts the iPhone as the “Internet in your pocket” — but it’s not. You can’t use it without AT&T, which cripples applications and limits what you can do and where you can go on the wireless Web.
We need the freedom to use all wireless devices on any network in a market that offers true high-speed Internet and real consumer choice. Sign this petition and help create a better mobile Internet for everyone.
nomasteryoda - tied up with my cellphone but my hands are still free!
Maine passes net neutrality legislation July 12, 2007
First let me start off this post with a huge thank you to everyone for spreading the word about fairuseday, we have been amazed at all the posts worldwide we have seen. So keep spreading the word, remmember your rights should not be limited to just one day, now on to the news.
While a little late in reporting this, Maine passed a resolution last month becoming the first state to advocate net neutrality. The resolution states that Maine will monitor both local and federal governments as well as the FCC for broadcast practices. While the resolution does not force anyone to abide by net neutrality, it states that they will be monitoring many agencies and will produce a report within a year summarizing the findings.
While not a net neutrality mandate, it is a good step in the right direction to know that at least some form of government is out there monitoring what is going on and may attempt to hold people accountable. You can read the full text of the resolution and an explanation here.
National Day of Silence for Webcasters June 26, 2007
Today a nation wide protest of new webcasting rates is being observed. Webcasters are turning off their streams for a day of silence. Some are boycotting music registered with the RIAA.
From the WFMU - Beware of the Blog
“Instead of webcasting silence today, WFMU has decided to boycott all music that is registered with the RIAA and/or SoundExchange. Today, you will hear songs from live performances on WFMU, material from the public domain, orphaned works, music from bands and record labels that have signed a waiver releasing WFMU from SoundExchange’s unreasonable royalty scheme, and music from artists that SoundExchange has neglected to pay.”
Visit www.savenetradio.org for more info. Update: Links to more coverage here.
We couldn’t very well call ourselves fairuseday without a post on this May 1, 2007
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More on the story…
BoingBoing Digg users revolt over AACS key
BBC DVD DRM row sparks user rebellion
Slashdot Censoring a Number
C|Net Unhappy Digg users bury site in protest
YouTube Oh Nine, Eff Nine (nice musical version!)
… and many many many more
Forbes Digg’s DRM Revolt
Wikipedia HD DVD encryption key controversy
Flickr set Censorship … meh
xkcd Code Talkers
EFF 09 f9: A Legal Primer
Ars AACS LA: Internet “revolt” be damned, this fight is not over (hahaha, you’re damn right it’s not!)
TLF Digg, Network Neutrality, and the Long Tail
Freedom To Tinker Why the 09ers Are So Upset
BoingBoing Juggling monkey makes ape out of AACS
Userfriendly.org HD-DVD Sudoku
ThinkGeek Meeting notes from a recent hypothetical meeting in the AACS-LA* office.
Support the FAIR USE Act! February 28, 2007
Snipped from EFF.org Deep Links, “Reps. Rick Boucher and John Doolittle’s FAIR USE Act [PDF] would remove some of the entertainment industry’s most draconian anti-innovation weapons and chip away at the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) broad restrictions on fair use. Take action now and tell Congress to help restore balance in copyright now.”John Perry Barlow, call for massive civil disobedience January 6, 2007
Netzpolitik did an interesting interview with John Perry Barlow, EFF founder and song writer for the Grateful Dead and the String Cheese Incident, following Larry Lessig’s most excellent keynote (video) from the 23C3 hacker conference in Berlin. The interview came after a debate with Lessig during the Q&A where Barlow suggested that massive civil disobedience may be the only way the public can crash the broken restrictive copyright system we have now. He does make a good point. Here is part of the transcript from the interview,
“My view is if we just keep pressing the system where it breaks, eventually the system is so broken and so obviously broken that there’s no choice but for people to start evolving another economic model. And that’s actually what’s already happening. Rather rapidly. […] if you wanna share something - share it. If you wanna use something - use it. Try to do so ethically in the sense that, you know, don’t take things without attribution, attribute. Make sure that the people who did create actually have the opportunity to get some enhanced reputation […]pay no attention to these people when it comes to being creative. Go ahead and do the stuff that Larry showed in the beginning of his talk and do lots of it. And every time they put a lock on - break it. And every time they pass a new law - break that. You know. Sooner or later they’re dealing with such a massive level of civil disobedience that they have to address it. And that’s where we’re headed in a, I think, a hell of a hurry.”
I don’t know for sure how to fix the serious problems with a copyright law that was bought and paid for by the entertainment industry but this just might work.
Day Against DRM October 2, 2006
Copyright is broken October 1, 2006
This weekend we did a promotional Music City Tour as part of the “Day Against DRM” campaign by DefectiveByDesign.org which is happening this Tuesday, Oct 3rd (more on that in a future post). So, I picked up some stencils from the local hobby store to make signs and paint messages on the car windows. It was only after the event that I discovered I had just committed a serious violation of copyright law in front of hundreds and hundreds of on-lookers. Down at the very bottom of the stencils packaging in letters so small you almost need a magnifying glass to read it says “These designs may not be reproduced in any form“. Click image for larger view.
I’m guessing they mean any form except for fair use’s such as commentary and criticism, like this post, as well as it’s intended use as a stencil, but you can’t be too careful. People are threatened with legal action over activities as seemingly harmless as embroidery or learning to play the guitar all the time. .
Anti-DRM day is October 3rd September 1, 2006
Defective by Design is organizing Anti-DRM Day on October 3. They are asking for ideas and handing out prizes for things like Best Idea, Best Action, Best Team Action, Best Photo, Best Blog, Best Video and more.
“Clear your schedule for a world wide day of action against DRM. On Tuesday October 3rd we will all be taking action to raise the stakes and attempt to increase awareness to the threats of DRM - in a very significant way.”
There are some good ideas up already like a Post-it Plague and Get arrested for violating your own copyright. You can even do something as simple and easy as print an anti-DRM image on a plain piece of paper and tape it to your car window.
