[bestbits] W3C and DRM: We've got momentum, but we need more protest selfies

[Mishi Choudhary]

Everyone,

Herein below is a request from the Free software Foundation. Please
consider joining the campaign.

Last week
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/show-them-the-world-is-watching-stop-drm-in-html>,
we asked you to show the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that you
wouldn't allow Digital Restrictions Management in the Web's technical
standards, and you answered. From around the world, you sent in protest
selfies
<https://media.libreplanet.org/u/zakkai/collection/no-drm-in-web-standards/>
against the proposed restriction standards championed by Netflix, Apple,
Microsoft, Google and Hollywood. With you at our backs, we're organizing
a major demonstration this Sunday
<https://www.fsf.org/events/demonstration-for-a-web-without-restrictions>,
outside the building where the W3C will be meeting to discuss DRM. A
parallel demonstration
<https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Demonstrations_against_DRM_in_HTML> is
planned outside the W3C office in Amsterdam. Our activism is working --
the campaign has drawn renewed attention to this once low-profile issue
and more people are learning that DRM standards would be a major
regression for user freedom on the Web.

*We've got momentum now, and we're going to use it. Taking action in
these two ways will help us win:*

*Add your protest selfie to the gallery:* Pose with a sign protesting
DRM in Web standards in front of a local landmark or skyline. This will
make it clear that just as the Web is global, objection to DRM in its
standards is global as well. The best landmark? One of the 20 W3C
offices, scattered across the world (addresses for USA's
<https://www.w3.org/Consortium/contact-mit> and Japan's
<https://www.w3.org/Consortium/contact-keio> and all others
<https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Offices/staff>). Try our printable sign
<https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/dbd/no-drm-in-html/no-drm-in-html-sign.pdf> if
you're not feeling creative.

Don't hesitate to invite friends for your photo. Even if they aren't
already up to speed on the details of this campaign, they use the Web
and DRM affects them too. Send your photos to info at defectivebydesign.org
<mailto:info at defectivebydesign.org>, along with the location where you
took them. Photos sent to us will be shared under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International license
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>, so please provide the
attribution you would like listed, or if you would like to remain
anonymous, please state that you wish for no attribution. We'll publish
as many of the photos as we can by Sunday.

*Organize a demonstration:* There's a clear way to take this to the next
level -- if you live near one of the W3C offices, organize a
demonstration there! We'll help bring people by emailing fellow
activists near you, and you can print our graphics and flyers
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/printable>. A demonstration on
Sunday, 3/20 will be the most impactful, even if it is only a few brave
souls. The details are up to you, but we recommend picketing outside
with signs and then attempting to peacefully deliver a printed copy of
our position letter
<https://static.fsf.org/dbd/Joint_Letter_on_W3C_HTML5_proposal.pdf>
against DRM in Web standards to the office. Let us know at
campaigns at fsf.org <mailto:campaigns at fsf.org> if you can lead a
demonstration.

Over the weekend, Joi Ito, a prominent Internet freedom advocate, came
out against DRM in Web standards
<https://boingboing.net/2016/03/13/joi-ito-on-drm-the-world-wide.html>.
We have other important allies, including the Electronic Frontier
Foundation
<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/defend-open-web-keep-drm-out-w3c-standards>,
many member organizations and staffers at the W3C, and the 26 signers of
our joint letter
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/sign-on-against-drm-in-html> (read it
for more detailed arguments against DRM in standards). The W3C's
leadership and the proponents of DRM standards are watching closely,
concerned about the amount of attention we are drawing to this. We've
met privately with W3C leadership over this issue before, and now our
allies are working with the W3C to arrange a public meeting in Cambridge
on Sunday. Some of the W3C staff have blogged about our campaign.
Everyone is waiting with anticipation for our demonstrations against DRM
standards this Sunday, at W3C offices in the US
<https://www.fsf.org/events/demonstration-for-a-web-without-restrictions> and
in Amsterdam
<https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Demonstrations_against_DRM_in_HTML>.

If we can keep the W3C from agreeing to DRM in Web standards, people
will look back on this as a historic victory for the free Web. Let's do
it, together!

Zak Rogoff
Campaigns Manager

/Read online:
https://www.defectivebydesign.org/weve-got-momentum-but-we-need-more-protest-selfies/

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