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DRM and Democracy

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the more-restrictions-are-always-fun dept.

jar writes to tell us Bruce Perens has a short editorial on why DRM could have an impact on much more than just our record collections. From the article: "Within the last century, electronic communications have increasingly become the vehicle of democratic discourse. Because radio and television broadcasting are expensive with limited frequencies available, the wealthy have dominated broadcasting. The Internet and World Wide Web place into the common man's hands the capability of global electronic broadcasting. [...] In order to protect democratic discourse in the future, the Internet must remain a fair and level playing field for the distribution of political speech. The full capability of the Internet must remain available to all, without restriction by religious, business, or political interests."

4 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. internet politics by MrSquirrel · · Score: 5, Funny

    "the Internet must remain a fair and level playing field for the distribution of political speech."
    Like: 'bush is teh gh3y.' "no, gore pWnz u." 'bush/cheney ftw.' "you stole my election!"
    [ANALOGY TIME] Finding political speech on the internet is like finding poop in the toilet: it's easy to find, but you don't want to see it.

    --
    A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
  2. Why Net Neurtality legislation is so important by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This subject really applies more to "Net Neutrality" than DRM. When big media controls the pipes, they effectively control the internet, unfortunately. We should stop that now, before it's too late and the Internet becomes every bit as locked-down as the airwaves and big media outlets.

    -Eric

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  3. Re:Yeah maybe, by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    > But probably not. The truth of the matter is that there will be a 100 petabyte flashdrive that people hand around that has ALL of music on it and the issue will be moot.

    "Real Americans don't use backups, they just email a disk image to their grandmothers and let NSA handle the archiving!"
    - with apologies to Linus

  4. Re:Freedom of Speech trumps DRM by aaribaud · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess the idea is that once DRM is generalized, it is a trivial matter to switch from a "non-DRMed content is allowed by default" to a "only DRMed content is allowed" stance, and then, to be able to produce content that anyone can actually see, any individual would depend on DRM providers. But surely no DRM "key holder" would even only think of deciding which content deserves being DRMed and which content should be banned, err, bared, from being viewed, or even known of.