Anti-DRM Day

Protect your freedom!

As dubbed by Defective By Design.org, today, October 3, 2006, is "Anti-DRM Day." With recommended demonstrations, protests, stickers, flyers... the whole shebang... I am still not that sure of the effectiveness of today's "theme" especially when tossing around the misleading phrase of "digital freedom". To me at least, it gives the impression that we should toss DRM out the window all together, while it is far more logical to urge content producers to use DRM to manage the rights of musicians, artists, and thier own copyrights through a compromise of each groups interests rather than enforcing secretive, and sometimes immoral and illegal, restrictions on how consumers can use content that the rightfully purchased.

Why was Oct 3 picked anyway? Does it have some significance?

Anyway, while the program lacks any clear strategy or objective (not necessarily a bad thing), I do think they are heading in the right direction. Education is the first step toward having any sort of change in how DRM is treated by media companies. Not only does the general public need to know what exactly it is they are paying for with each$.99 iTunes purchase, but a greater understanding of the implications of DRM, the limitations it puts on the content that you "purchase" (in the most severe of cases, a purchase can more closely resemble a rental agreement without the buyer's full understanding of how the content is allowed to be used).

If I tell my technophobic-girlfriend about DRM by explaining merely that it is the technology that Apple puts on iTunes songs that limits you to use it on X computers and burn it to CD X times, she'll just shrug her shoulders. But if she finds out that playing a CD on her computer can secretly install software that will monitor her content usage as well as open up her system to a slew of viruses and hackers, she might pay a little more attention.

If the RIAA/MPAA are so concerned with piracy, would it be such a bad idea to act ethically and with honest concern for the relationships that they have with their customers rather than bully them around and anyone who stands up against them a pirate, criminal or a thief? Not that content producers/distributors don't have a right to protect their content... but if you push your entire customer base into corner, and someone is bound to push back.

Hopefully the video industry will not muck it up as badly as the music industry has. ..

Links:

http://defectivebydesign.org/en/node
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3705

Technorati Tags: anti drm day, Jameson Bull, DRM

Andy Rooney made me dumber

While doing some casual chanel surfing tonight, I happened to stumble upon Andy Rooney's daily rant on 60 Minutes.I hadn't actually seen his segment in five years or so, but I was really glad that I hadn't because my brain went numb for a good 20 minutes after the show and it almost completely washed away my faith in network news.

Not only did Andy just miss the boat with his rant on Spinach, the day after the F.D.A gives the OK to eat it again, but his two minute verbal vomit lacked event the slightest hint of intelligence, insight, or even respect for the program's viewers.

Check out the text version here.

I'm not sure if the aging viewers of 60 minutes demand that this junk, or if the show's producers are too stuck in tradition to actually offer their viewers that might enlighten or even improve their daily lives. Either way, I don't see myself trying to swallow that much garbage anytime soon unless I develop some masochistic tendencies.

Tecnorati Tags: andy rooney, vegitarian