[Gllug] Re: Anti-DRM event in Central London today!

[Simon Morris]

On 30/09/06, Leo Hickey <hickey444 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> I haven't thought too much about the subject before, but I am persuaded
> by the anti-DRM argument. I disagree that the Lessig presentation that
> you pointed to is a good introduction to the argument.

Well - that's fair enough.. but it has made you think about it so it
isn't all bad :-)

You are right - it isn't a broad enough presentation to cover the most
important aspects of DRM.

> The examples he
> gives are really more about licensing issues than consequences of DRM
> technology (and those slide sequences with one word on each slide are
> extremely annoying).

He's made that style fairly famous now amongst tech speakers... have
you seen Dick Hardts presentation on Identity 2.0?

http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/

( Irks me greatly that the keynote presentation for the Open Source
Conference is only available to view in Flash and Quicktime. But it's
a good presentation )

> > What about the effect DRM could have on Free Software? Are you as
> > likely to accept DRM if it means that Firefox on Windows won't run?
>
> Again, this is a much more solid argument, and frankly I don't see the
> counter argument, so if anyone can tell me why MS should be allowed to
> use DRM for this kind of thing I would be interested.

Because they can then stop illegal copies of software or modified
versions of software.

They have some fairly sensible arguments for protection against
malware and viruses (you can only execute approved signed code) but
again.. behind one sensible argument there is a mess of knock-on
effects and other restrictions they can enforce.

If people don't stand up against DRM it's easier for them to push
these kind of restrictions into the market and make them acceptable.

-- 
~sm
Jabber: sm at jabber.fsfe.org
www: http://beerandspeech.org
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