Lawsuit could be the beginning of the end for DRM
defectivebydesign.org
Lawsuit could be the beginning of the end for DRM
1–10 of 209 posts
Re: Lawsuit could be the beginning of the end for DRM
#2It appears the EFF intend to fight section 1201 (thou shalt not circumvent) on first amendment free speech arguments, and on the idea that punishment for circumvention creates a chilling effect.
I don't think a court will buy it. They'll argue that 1201 protects the free speech of content creators, and that it works as intended - and they will cite the decss appeal, which was won by the media giants on the same argument. https://www.2600.com/news/112801-files/universal.html
Re: Lawsuit could be the beginning of the end for DRM
#3If it was not for DRM removal tools I would have recently been screwed by Amazon, here is my story:
I was a longtime customer (easily 10 years or more I think) and have bought every version of Kindle to have come out over the years (unfortunately they break easily) and have build up a large collection
Recently I replaced the debit card on my account as the old one expired, placed and order for a digital game code for my xbox one (done it many times before) and bang my account was nuked. Yes I used 2fa no my account was not hacked by anyone. No I never abused their refund policy as some people do. Yes I tried resetting my password and get an email about password change BUT still can not login as it errors out.
I must have rang dozen of times (chat doesnt work if you dont have an account) and send as many emails to everyone from support to jeff@amazon.com (apparently this is a shortcut to get attention to your case) in all cases was told an "account specialist" would get in contact, yadda yadda but no luck.
If it was not for deDRM tools (which I started to use after the 1984 "incident" few years back) all of my books would have been unreadable now, had to deregister the kindle too since account doesnt work.
I wonder how many people who are not as tech savy get screwed and are left with nothing.
Re: Lawsuit could be the beginning of the end for DRM
#4It appears the EFF intend to fight section 1201 (thou shalt not circumvent) on first amendment free speech arguments, and on the idea that punishment for circumvention creates a chilling effect. I don't think a court will buy it. They'll argue that 1201 protects the free speech of content creators, and that it works as intended - and they will cite the decss appeal, which was won by the media giants on the same argum…
How is this possibly about the speech of content creators? That implies I'm obliged to listen whenever anyone speaks.
Re: Lawsuit could be the beginning of the end for DRM
#5The fact is both sides of this have a lot to answer for in terms of eroding the underlying relationship when it comes to any consumer/creator transaction. For a long time media companies made it artificially hard to purchase content legally and in so doing are at least partially responsible for the rampancy of piracy. In turn, a lot of people got used to pirating content for free instead of paying for it, even when reasonably priced options were made available.
A decent number of pirates now refuse to pay for digital content/software because "information should be free." This is a farce and anyone who earns a living writing software or producing content knows it.
A decent number of media companies now treat their customers like criminals, constantly checking and rechecking if they actually own the stuff they're trying to use, which would be fine more or less if the software doing this actually worked. If any one of the thousand links in that given chain break, then the media the customer has paid for becomes unusable or is even deleted, and that is unacceptable.
Both sides have their bad actors and it's hard to see a way out of this mess.
Re: Lawsuit could be the beginning of the end for DRM
#6The link is to a reasonably thought out and worded perspective from that of a technology industry participant. As noted within, there are some guiding principles which establish the basis for perspective and action. As in, the Free Software Foundation wouldn't be interested in participating in the for-profit software market.
For a counter-point, when this case first broke and I was able to study the implications from a creator and "IP holder" perspective, I wrote the following essay:
https://medium.com/@6StringMerc/arguments-against-the-dmca-s...
I will genuinely engage with anyone who would like to take some assertions or postulations of mine and challenge them for the sake of discussion. These are important topics!
Re: Lawsuit could be the beginning of the end for DRM
#7The fact is both sides of this have a lot to answer for in terms of eroding the underlying relationship when it comes to any consumer/creator transaction. For a long time media companies made it artificially hard to purchase content legally and in so doing are at least partially responsible for the rampancy of piracy. In turn, a lot of people got used to pirating content for free instead of paying for it, even when r…
This is very encouraging to read and I'm in complete agreement. I've posted a link to my essay in this thread because I share the media/tech slugfest perspective.
Personally I think the starting point to get out of this mess is an overhaul first and foremost of Copyright terms. They're so far out of whack it genuinely stifles innovation and expression and progress...etc. Now, more than ever, time moves quickly - what may be profitable yesterday (e.g. "Gangnam Style") may quickly fade. Thus it stands to reason that temporary protections should be, well, much more temporary! I say this as a content creator and paying customer - life + 5 years is, to me, more than fair. There's a window to allow families of the deceased creator to make a bit of cash and get their affairs in order before the works head into the Public Domain for the benefit of all.
Re: Lawsuit could be the beginning of the end for DRM
#8It appears the EFF intend to fight section 1201 (thou shalt not circumvent) on first amendment free speech arguments, and on the idea that punishment for circumvention creates a chilling effect. I don't think a court will buy it. They'll argue that 1201 protects the free speech of content creators, and that it works as intended - and they will cite the decss appeal, which was won by the media giants on the same argum…
In a previous discussion, I was informed of a mistaken assumption of mine: There was a case where Section 1201 was ruled as more applicable than Fair Use. It's my belief - and apparently questionable in reality - that Fair Use that passes the four-factor test should absolutely be exempt from DMCA restrictions. If the EFF case can somehow convince the court that the chilling effect is real, I will be thoroughly impressed. What I mean by this is I think competent defense will point out that the Internet is awash in DMCA violating individuals engaged in Fair Use activities (commentary, parody, etc) and the merit of the DMCA is to curtail incentive to engage in infringement on an industrial scale.
Re: Lawsuit could be the beginning of the end for DRM
#9If it was not for DRM removal tools I would have recently been screwed by Amazon, here is my story: I was a longtime customer (easily 10 years or more I think) and have bought every version of Kindle to have come out over the years (unfortunately they break easily) and have build up a large collection Recently I replaced the debit card on my account as the old one expired, placed and order for a digital game code for…
I'll only buy DRM content as long as I can easily remove it, and right now the only DRM content I regularly buy is books mostly from Google and Amazon. The first thing i strip the DRM and archive it.
Re: Lawsuit could be the beginning of the end for DRM
#10If it was not for DRM removal tools I would have recently been screwed by Amazon, here is my story: I was a longtime customer (easily 10 years or more I think) and have bought every version of Kindle to have come out over the years (unfortunately they break easily) and have build up a large collection Recently I replaced the debit card on my account as the old one expired, placed and order for a digital game code for…
The only scenario, in which DRM makes any sense at all, is B2B patronage.
Other businesses probably SHOULD license hobbled, encrypted garbage from provider businesses. It's a use case where a collective group of people decide to use a pre-defined set of noises and pictures for some reason or another. But who cares why, and no one on the consumer side of that transaction really owns the media samples directly. The provider company owns the masters and the subscriber company owns the user license, and outside of the context of the companies in question, those things might be worthless curiosities.
But for individual consumers, DRM makes no fucking sense at all. It's abusive corporate group-think from square one. Any implementation that causes you to question whether you should share something with your friends, lest you harm a business that extracts money from you, is something of an abomination.