[governance] Why HTML5 #DRM is dangerous for Free Software (was Draft Statement...)

[Norbert Bollow]

Chaitanya Dhareshwar <chaitanyabd at gmail.com> wrote:

> In the context of Disney movies - assuming "purchased" and not
> "pirated" - wouldnt the purchaser already be exposing their identity
> for the purchase validation process?

I think that it's very important that when cultural goods are sold
rather than shared freely, it must be possible to buy without the
“who bought what” information getting recorded in some kind of database.

For example, I have literature which is of a kind that (in some
totalitarian states) people have been literally persecuted and killed
for having.

This kind of potential risk is not only in regard to human rights
violations by states. What if some kind of terrorist organization
delares a “jihad” against all who read a certain book or watch a
certain video?


I think that this is a relevant concern in regard to DRM, even if it
not one that I have been addressing in my recent posting. There I was
talking about protecting one's privacy in regard to communications etc
by means of using a Free Software operating system platform, and about
the potential dilemma that could easily arise if DRM'd content becomes
increasingly important (from the user's perspective) but because of the
DRM it is not accessible using a Free Software operating system
platform.

> Further DRM as a part of the standard would mean that browsers that
> work on *nix platforms would also support the standard (for example
> this list here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_browsers_for_Unix_and_Unix-like_operating_systems)...
> In fact most browsers would sooner or later have built in support for
> DRM just in the process of following the standard. Thus people using
> an open source platform (using Linux as an example) would easily be
> able to make the purchase, as well as watch the movie both using
> freely available (OS + Browser + Movie Player).

The specification which is under discussion foresees that an additional
component will be needed in addition to OS + Browser + Movie Player:
A “content decryption module” (CDM).

In my opinion, it is not plausible to expect the CDMs to be made
available for Free Software operating system platforms. (Doing so would
make it trivially easy to defeat what that whole architecture with the
CDMs is seeking to achieve.)


Roland Perry <roland at internetpolicyagency.com> wrote:
> It seems to me that there's a mistaken concept of "freedom to listen" 
> (by all and any available means) in addition to the well accepted 
> concept of "freedom of speech".
>
> Is it an infringement of my human rights if I have to buy an X-box to 
> run a particular X-box game, because my open source *nix PC won't
> play the game?

That's not the type of situation that I'm protesting against.

Suppose someone has an X-box (with some games) and a PC with Microsoft
Windows as OS. Two separate physical machines which connect to the
Internet using the same IP address (via a NAT box). The person then
replaces Microsoft Windows on the PC with a different OS which the
user believe has better privacy protection properties. If that action
has the consequence that the X-box gets remotely disabled, making all
the games on the X-box unplayable on the X-box, then I'd say that that 
situation is analogous to DRM's cultural goods which are accessible
only on some “mainstream” operating system platforms but not on user
modifiable operating system platforms.

Greetings,
Norbert

-- 
Recommendations for effective and constructive participation in IGC:
1. Respond to the content of assertions and arguments, not to the person
2. Be conservative in what you send, be liberal in what you accept


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