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…)
It’s Fairuseday! July 10, 2007
Well it’s that time of the year again so get out and celebrate your rights. We have had a big fairuse year to date. With EMI dropping DRM from their music catalog and Apple agreeing to sell it, the take down of AACS protection and its continuing battle against ‘the bad guys’, to the still ongoing debate over net neutrality. It has been a turbulent year with many small victories along the way. There is still a long way to go to ensure that our rights remain with us as the recent stories about ATT with their claims that a non-neutral net needs less bandwidth have shown. So keep copying, keep making parodies, and keep expressing your rights.
Some links on todays event:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/10/happy_fair_use_day_j.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070710-did-ya-know-its-fair-use-day-july-11-2007.html
http://torrentfreak.com/3rd-annual-fair-use-day-arrives/
http://www.pirate-party.us/node/366
We couldn’t very well call ourselves fairuseday without a post on this May 1, 2007
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0
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.
Sign the open letter to Steve Jobs, Drop DRM! March 20, 2007
DefectiveByDesign.org has posted an open letter to Steve Jobs following his February 7th comments on getting rid of DRM on iTunes music. You can sign the letter and add your comments to be sent with it. From the site,
“Sign this letter to Steve Jobs asking him to back his pledge on DRM by April 1. We will send the letter, with your comments to Steve, on April 1, and include a big thank you because he has taken one of these actions, or a jesters hat for him to wear if he hasn’t. We will publish the best/funniest comments through out the month!”
EMI dumps CD DRM January 8, 2007
BoingBoing is reporting that EMI will no longer be crippling their CD’s with digital rights management. The original announcement is in Dutch on NVPI. Could it be true, did some one at EMI finally get a clue?
Day Against DRM October 2, 2006
30 Days of DRM with Michael Geist September 18, 2006
Michael Geist (Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa) has spent the last month posting “some of the exceptions and limitations that should be included in the event that a Canadian DMCA is introduced.” On each of the last 30 days he posted about one of the many pitfalls that DRM and DMCA-like laws cause for society including issues like anti-circumvention, time-shifting, educational institutions and libraries access to media, and backup archival copying. If you want a good over view of the problems with DRM read the the 30 Days of DRM.
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.
We aren’t all pirates? July 10, 2006
Then why do we all get treated like pirates? IPac has a post on the LA Times article “We aren’t all pirates” that talks about the entertainment industry’s efforts to keep their dusty old business model afloat in the new world of the Internet, and computers, and all those filthy pirates.
From the IPac post,
“The Hollywood cartels want complete control over every and all digital device that is capable of playing back media in any form. PERFORM would cripple satellite radio and Internet radio. SIRA would also cripple Internet radio. The Broadcast Flag would cripple HDTV. The Audio Flag would cripple digital radio. And IPPA (DMCA 2.0) would throw every file trader in jail for 10 years.”
Indie artist says DRM is “extremely stupid” July 6, 2006
From technozid.de, BB, the German bitpop group Bodenständig 2000 is done with itunes and DRM. While some members of the band think file sharing may contribute to lost revenue, DRM is most definitely not the answer, at least not for them, and they have finally managed to opt out.
“We know that mp3 is part of our relative
poverty, but Apples proprietary digital rights
management is an extremely stupid answer.”
I have never seen Digital Rights Management used to do anything other then infringe upon the rights granted to the public by law. More and more artists are realizing that DRM is the worst thing you can do to artistic expression, aside from a good old fashioned book burning.
URGENT: The Broadcast Flag Is Back, Again June 21, 2006
From the EFF and BB: The RIAA and MPAA have managed to get the broadcast flag into the official Republican version of the telecoms reform bill and it’s being considered in committee tomorrow (Thursday, June 22). Senator Sununu (R-NH) has filed an amendment to get the flags thrown out. If you’re in the States below, call your Senator NOW, and ask him or her to support the Sununu amendment to remove both TV and audio flags (he also has an amendment to modify the audio flag, so be clear you want to kick out both flags).
For more info visit these links
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/21/urgent_call_now_to_s.html
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004759.php
Here is the list, call and let your voice be heard!
Chairman Ted Stevens (AK), (202) 224-3004
John McCain (AZ), (202) 224-2235
Conrad Burns (MT), Main: 202-224-2644
Trent Lott (MS), (202) 224-6253
Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), (202) 224-5922
Gordon H. Smith (OR), (202) 224 3753
John Ensign (NV), (202) 224-6244
George Allen (VA), (202) 224-4024
John E. Sununu (NH), (202) 224-2841
Jim DeMint (SC), (202) 224-6121
David Vitter (LA),(202) 224-4623
Co-Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (HI), (202) 224-3934
John D. Rockefeller (WV), (202) 224-6472
John F. Kerry (MA), (202) 224-2742
Barbara Boxer (CA), (202) 224-3553
Bill Nelson (FL), (202) 224-5274
Maria Cantwell (WA), (202) 224-3441
Frank R. Lautenberg (NJ), (202) 224-3224
E. Benjamin Nelson (NE), (202) 224-6551
Mark Pryor (AR), (202) 224-2353
DRM Stinks. Let Freedom Ring…..the RIAA
DefectiveByDesign.org is staging another protest against DRM. Thanks BB! From the site
On Friday, June 23rd, we will coordinate a day of action, and this time it doesn’t involve yellow hazmat suits. You don’t even have to leave your desk. We will provide contact numbers for executives at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and similar organizations around the world. We’re asking you to proclaim your support for digital freedoms by calling the RIAA and telling them what you think of DRM and what you think of them!
DefectiveByDesign DRM demonstrations tomorrow June 9, 2006
DefectiveByDesign.org, an anti-DRM campaign targeting Big Media, unhelpful manufacturers and DRM distributors will be picketing Apple Stores across the USA tomorrow to inform consumers about the DRM hiding in Apple’s iTunes. From the site
“Let the fun begin! We will be on-site tomorrow from 10am (local time) getting suited-up and you can expect the action to start at 10:30am - remember to bring those cameras!”
Apple Store - 1 Stockton St, San Francisco, CA 94108
Apple Store - 679 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611
Apple Store - 4702 NE University Village Pl, Seattle, WA 98105
Apple Store - 100 Cambridge Side Place, Cambridge, MA 02141
Apple Store - 767 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10153
Apple Store - 160 Walt Whitman Rd. Huntington Station, NY 11746h
Apple Store - 6121 West Park Blvd. Plano, TX 75093
Apple Store - 189 The Grove Drive Los Angeles, CA 90036
Over 500 Art Professionals Call for Balanced Copyright Laws June 6, 2006
A coalition of over 500 art professionals are calling on the Canadian government to reform copyright law (thanks BB!). The list of members includes the President of CARFAC, (Canadian Artists Representation/Le front des artistes canadiens), an organization that believes that “artists, like professionals in other fields, should be paid for their work and share equitably in profits from their work”. From the website,
“The Coalition offers three principles that it argues must ground Canada’s copyright policy:
FAIR ACCESS TO COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL LIES AT THE HEART OF COPYRIGHT. Creators need access to the works of others to create. Legislative changes premised on the “need” to give copyright owners more control over their works must be rejected. (more…)
Tell Your Senators to Kick Out the Flags May 6, 2006
DO IT TODAY - THIS CAN’T WAIT!!!!
This is a direct quote from EFF.orgSenator Stevens has introduced a bill that includes not just the broadcast flag, but the audio flag too. Write to your senators now, and tell them to keep the entertainment industry’s tech mandates off the law books!
“On May 1st, Senator Stevens introduced the “Communications, Consumer’s Choice, and Broadband
Deployment Act” (S.2686). Buried inside this 125 page bill is language that would create a broadcast flag in over-the-air TV transmissions, and give the FCC power to create a similar technology mandate for digital radio.If this bill were to pass, government - and the entertainment industry - would control what you could do with digital media in your home. The broadcast flag would place TV shows in a DRM ghetto, where your right to copy, back-up, sell, time-shift or convert them into formats convenient to you would be at the whim of the broadcasters. The audio flag would give the FCC matching powers over “digital audio broadcasting,” including satellite radio, digital HD radio, and potentially even Internet radio.There’s no benefit here for artists or customers, and for infringing copiers, evading these copy controls will be as easy as ever. No matter how inconvenienced individual users would be by a flag, pirates would be able to bypass it. The bill would usher in a new world of anti-consumer electronics, and a chance for the MPAA’s and RIAA’s member companies to seize even greater control over all media distribution and use.”
More info:
Video Flag (Digital TV)
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/
Radio Flag
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/?f=digitalradioflag.html
nomasteryoda - wanting to keep my rights and everyone elses!!
USACM issues policy recommendations on DRM March 13, 2006
There is a post on EFF: Deeplinks about the U.S. Public Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery (USACM) who has issued a set of policy recommendations regarding DRM. These sound very reasonable and we all should expect no less. Heres a snippet
“Copyright Balance: Because lawful use (including fair use) of copyrighted works is in the publics best interest, a person wishing to make lawful use of copyrighted material should not be prevented from doing so. As such, DRM systems should be mechanisms for reinforcing existing legal constraints on behavior (arising from copyright law or by reasonable contract), not as mechanisms for creating new legal constraints. Appropriate technical and/or legal safeguards should be in place to preserve lawful uses in cases where DRM systems cannot distinguish lawful uses from infringing uses.”
Consumer Protection: DRM should not be used to interfere with the rights of consumers. Neither should DRM technologies interfere with any technology or use of consumer systems that are unrelated to the copyrighted items being managed. Policymakers should actively monitor actual use of DRM and amend policies as necessary to protect these rights and interests.”
Now lets hope the policy makers listen.
