[Bradford] Fwd: Don't let the MPAA buy the Web

[Robert Burrell Donkin]

On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 1:15 PM, John R. Hudson
<j.r.hudson at virginmedia.com> wrote:
> I think it is important not to overstate this move.

Yes

The W3C has a reasonably open and non-discriminatory membership
policy. In order to engage on an official level with the W3C about
standards, the MPAA needs to be a member.

> Of course, the MPAA
> has been trying for years to control people's lives and they need to be
> resisted

Though slightly less dramatically engaging, I suspect that the MPAA
has just been trying (without great success) to make money, and
attempts to gain influence over people's lives is merely a side
effect...

> but most of the work on HTML is done by WHATWG and not by W3C.

The power of standards bodies like the W3C rest upon people being
willing to follow those standards.

Given the general level of competence and astuteness demonstrated by
the MPAA,  I expect any standards heavily influenced by them to crash,
burn and die (HARD!!!)

If you want rich media without the security issues (and general
hassle) of software like flash, that means at least engaging with the
issue of DRM-related meta-data. If you don't like that, lobby the
people which make the laws not the technologists who just want to be
able to play video safely.

I suspect that game being played by the MPAA is to create a standard
and then influence the idiots who create laws to enforce it. But US
anti-trust laws probably prevent this from being done through a body
like the W3C, so expect the MPAA to storm out in the couple of years
time and then go crying to Congress and demand a US government
standard instead...

Robert