Today Is International Day Against DRM 256
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.
Alternatively... (Score:5, Informative)
You could go to O'Reilly [oreilly.com] 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...
On a side note (Score:4, Informative)
I'm old enough to remember when the term "minicomputer" was used to describe a computer that fit in a single room. Our desktops were "microcomputers" and our phones and tablets were "science fiction". :-)
Re:If we can put an end to DRM (Score:4, Informative)
Don't buy Televisions from Westinghouse. They're using DRM to restrict over-the-air broadcast reception - the primary purpose of a TV! You have to get a special code from them just to use your TV.
This is one of the very few cases where DRM benefits the consumer, as it keeps the price of the TV lower. Westinghouse does this so that they only have to pay patent royalties for the tuner technology if the tuner is actually used.
Once the tuner is activated, it is permanent until a complete reset of the TV. Even with a reset, the same code will re-activate the tuner, as it is only tied to the serial number. So, yeah, it's a very weak form of DRM, but it's not much of a problem as far as real world use is concerned.