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

[Catherine Roy]

On 14/06/2013 12:14 AM, Chaitanya Dhareshwar wrote:
> In one instance of DRM that caused a rift with consumers, Amazon.com 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com> remotely deleted purchased 
> copies of George Orwell <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell>'s 
> /Nineteen Eighty-Four 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four>/ and /Animal Farm 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm>/ from customers' Amazon 
> Kindles <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle> after providing 
> them a refund for the purchased products.^[44] 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management#cite_note-44> 
> Commentators have widely described these actions as Orwellian 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwellian>, and have alluded to Big 
> Brother 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_%28Nineteen_Eighty-Four%29> 
> from Orwell's /Nineteen Eighty-Four/.^[45] 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management#cite_note-45> 
> ^[46] 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management#cite_note-46> 
> ^[47] 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management#cite_note-47> 
> ^[48] 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management#cite_note-48> 
> After an Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos> issued a public apology, the 
> Free Software Foundation 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation> wrote that 
> this was just one more example of the excessive power Amazon has to 
> remotely censor what people read through its software, and called upon 
> Amazon to free its e-book reader and drop DRM.^[49] 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management#cite_note-49> 
> Amazon then revealed that the reason behind its deletion was the 
> ebooks in question were unauthorized reproductions of Orwell's works, 
> which were not within the public domain and to which the company that 
> published and sold them on Amazon's service had no rights.^[50] 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management#cite_note-50>
> ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management

Here is another well-known example:


"The Sony BMG CD copy protection rootkit scandal of 2005–2007 concerns 
copy protection measures implemented by Sony BMG on about 22 million 
CDs. When inserted into a computer, the CDs installed one of two pieces 
of software which provided a form of digital rights management (DRM) by 
modifying the operating system to interfere with CD copying. Both 
programs could not be easily uninstalled, and they unintentionally 
created vulnerabilities that were exploited by unrelated malware. One of 
the programs installed even if the user refused its EULA, and it "phoned 
home" with reports on the user's private listening habits; the other was 
not mentioned in the EULA at all, contained code from several pieces of 
open-source software in an apparent infringement of copyright, and 
configured the operating system to hide the software's existence, 
leading to both programs being characterized as rootkits.

Sony BMG initially denied that the rootkits were harmful. It then 
released, for one of the programs, an "uninstaller" that only un-hid the 
program, installed additional software which could not be easily 
removed, collected an email address from the user, and introduced 
further security vulnerabilities.

Following public scorn, government investigations and class-action 
lawsuits in 2005 and 2006, Sony BMG partially addressed the scandal with 
consumer settlements, a recall of about 10% of the affected CDs, and the 
suspension of CD copy protection efforts in early 2007."

Source : 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal


-- 
Catherine Roy
http://www.catherine-roy.net

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