Defend the Open Web: Keep DRM Out of W3C Standards 351
jrepin writes "There's a new front in the battle against digital restrictions management (DRM)technologies. These technologies, which supposedly exist to enforce copyright, have never done anything to get creative people paid. Instead, by design or by accident, their real effect is to interfere with innovation, fair use, competition, interoperability, and our right to own things. That's why we were appalled to learn that there is a proposal currently before the World Wide Web Consortium's HTML5 Working Group to build DRM into the next generation of core Web standards. The proposal is called Encrypted Media Extensions, or EME. Its adoption would be a calamitous development, and must be stopped."
NO (Score:3, Interesting)
1 standard is better than 1000 crappy implementations - if you don't like it just disable it like you do any other browser option and you'll never be burdened with DRM'd content.
Re:Not putting in DRM isn't going to eliminate DRM (Score:5, Interesting)
Suppose a user sends me a threatening message on some site online. With DRM I can't save it. Suppose I want to save a video so I can play it later (maybe I need to play it offline for my assignment work). Again, if it's DRM'd I can't do that. I don't want my computer to work against me, and I don't think that should be a "standard".
Perhaps the better question is why should DRM be a standard? Why should computers disobey their owners for the sake of corporate greed? Why do media companies pretend that the world will end if DRM isn't added to HTML5?
It might also help to read what media companies have proposed for HTML5 DRM [w3.org]. The BBC wants to be able to take legal action against anyone that bypasses the DRM (even if the user isn't infringing copyright itself).
Re:Must *NOT* be stopped. (Score:0, Interesting)
You are not a realist, just naive.
The only way for DRM to be barely able to work is if it is implemented as a proprietary plugin or implemented in a proprietary browser.
Otherwise you can easily recompile out the parts you do not like.
Are you ready to see the end of complete Free (as in freedom) browser, for the benefit of trading off Silverlight for your fucking Netflix ?
Yeah I thought so, you deserve neither.