Vista a Threat to Internet Freedom?

BBC columnist Bill Thompson warns readers that new DRM technology, especially that found in Vista, is damaging the freedoms that the internet was based on. "The freedom of expression that was once available to users of the Internet Protocol is being stripped away. Our freedom to play, experiment, share and seek inspiration from the creative works of others is increasingly restricted so that large companies can lock our culture down for their own profit. [...] governments and corporations around the world are making a concerted effort to dismantle the open internet and replace it with a regulated and regulable one that will allow them to impose an 'architecture of control.'"

Comments

Summary = FUD, article = great

[PFI_Optix]

The summary says:

Bill Thompson warns readers that new DRM technology, especially that found in Vista, is damaging the freedoms that the internet was based on.

The article says:

...It is not that the features built into Windows are evil, as some of the more hyperbolic bloggers claim, nor even that they are unnecessary.

It is that they change the way our computers work and the way they relate to the network, and those changes could be used to take away our freedoms.

Thanks to the internet we are seeing an unprecedented shift of power from the centre to the people, a shift that we observe in the media, in politics and in the way large companies respond to their customers.

We need to ensure that the freedoms we currently enjoy online are preserved as the network evolves, or this shift could easily end up as minor historical footnote.

The article is a warning to be vigilant, not a cry of impending doom. It's worth reading. Just ignore the summary.

Re:Probably all true.

[NShade]

Actually that is exactly what they tried with PERFORM Act. Greed knows no bounds.

Not only that, but they exhumed that bill and are trying again.

Re:Legal Key invalid...

[Technician]

I have to pay the Gateway mafia their payola or download an illegal version of Windows and put my legal key in.

With DRM what you expect and what you get may not be the same. I recall seeing some discussion of the Legal XP key becomming invalidated in the Vista upgrade process.

A quick Google search brings up gems like "Vista will invalidate your XP key (so you won't be able to set up a dual-boot option nor will you be able to use that version of XP on another machine). Not only that, but if you ever uninstall Vista, you won't be able to fall back on your copy of XP anymore. Nice"

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/software/upgrade-to-vis ta-lose-your-xp-key-232647.php

Single vendor copy protected software may not provide you the privilages you expected to recieve when you bought it.

Any questions?

Re:Informal Poll

[p0tat03]

I'm a Mac user, you might be better off looking at Linux if DRM-free-ness is what you want. Apple is as big a pusher of DRM as Microsoft. That said, it tends to be less in-your-face about it.