FTC Warns Against Deceptive DRM

Jane Q. Public writes "At the Federal Trade Commission's Seattle conference on DRM, FTC Director Mary Engle started off by referencing the Sony rootkit debacle, and said that companies are going to have to get serious about disclosing DRM that may affect the usability of products. She also said that disclosure via the fine print in a EULA is not good enough, and 'If your advertising giveth and your EULA taketh away, don't be surprised if the FTC comes calling.' Transcripts and webcasts are available from the FTC website." Update 18:13 GMT by SM: as Jane Q. Public was nice enough to diplomatically point out, the webcasts are no longer functioning, but transcripts are still available.

Comments

Re:Sounds great!

[je ne sais quoi]

Mod parent up! Along with the own it/license it false advertising, the entire current format for blu-ray media discs needs to scrapped, along with HDCP. The blu-ray java engine just means I need to run windows to play blu-ray discs as they should be and the HDCP means that I can't play my legally purchased discs using my legally purchased blu-ray disc drive except at a crummy resolution. I need to break the law and remove the copy protection just to view them. I would say this is a huge joke, but at $30 a disc, it isn't funny.