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Today Is International Day Against DRM
jrepin writes "Digital restrictions management (DRM) creates damaged goods that users cannot control or use freely. It requires users to give-up control of their computers and restricts access to digital data and media. Device manufacturers and corporate copyrights holders have already been massively infecting their products with user-hostile DRM. Tablets, mobile phones and other minicomputers are sold with numerous restrictions embedded that cripple users freedom. The proposal at table in W3C to put DRM into HTML goes even further. Fight it: use today's today is international Day Against DRM, so spread the word and make yourself heard!"
The EFF suggests making every day a day against DRM.
EA retaliates with International "Fuck You, You're Going To Buy Our Games Anyway" Day.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
Simple solution that politicians would have a hard time saying no to. All products that have DRM should be forced to display a DRM warning message on the outside of the packaging in print, TV and on line advertising. The message should explain in simple terms what the DRM does. IE - requires on line connection all the times, Requires Disk in drive all the time, prevents back up copies...etc. There should be stiff fines for selling products with DRM and no warning label. Then let the market decide. DRM is toxic to computers and users. So the proper warning is the right thing to do.
If you don't like a product with DRM, don't buy it.
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There are too many awareness days to keep track of, and most of the time you don't even hear about them until the day is almost over. What we need is an International Day Day, so that we can let people know what days are the international awareness days for what topics.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
There is nothing wrong with DRM. Personally, I think it is not a good idea for music or games. Those are things that should exist perpetually and for your own personal use.
However, it is short sighted to say that DRM should not exist. I brought this up in the previous DRM related thread, but people don't think of its best possible uses.
- When a doctor is sharing your medical information to another doctor, wouldn't you want control over when/where that medical information can be viewed? Wouldn't you want it to self destruct?
- When you work under SEC rules and have to provide your financial statements to management for compliance, wouldn't you want control over where/when those can be viewed?
Yes, it is a bad idea to treat your customers like thieves. But it isn't a bad idea when 3rd parties are distributing your private information to other 3rd parties.
You could go to O'Reilly and celebrate by buying any of their 50% ebooks. It jumps to 60% if you're like me and load up your shopping cart like a madman whenever their stuff goes on sale...
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
Except, in your examples, existing regulatory/enforcement methods seem to work reasonably well already (like HIPAA regulations). Unlike mass media content being sold to (and potentially copied by) zillions of people, it's pretty trivial to determine who is responsible when your medical records show up on the Pirate Bay. Medical and financial professionals might want to build automated compliance safeguards into their own computer systems to, e.g., automatically delete expired "borrowed" files --- but, unlike DRM, such systems can be *entirely under the control of the computer user* (not forced on them by third parties).
However, it is short sighted to say that DRM should not exist.
- When a doctor is sharing your medical information to another doctor, wouldn't you want control over when/where that medical information can be viewed?
I think you're confusing encryption (a Good Thing) with DRM (a Bad Thing). If encrypted, only authorized doctors would have the decryption key. They can access the data when needed. If DRM'd , the moment the controlling body -- think online gaming server -- dies or is obsoleted, no doctor will ever again be able to access your records. Not an ideal situation.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw