Digital Restrictions Management and Treacherous Computing
by
John Sullivan
Contributions
—
Published on
Jan 30, 2006 01:26 PM
DRM is often written as "Digital Rights Management", but this is misleading, since it refers to systems that are designed to take away and limit your rights. So, we suggest you use the term "Digital Restrictions Management" instead. We also suggest "Treacherous Computing" as a replacement for the misleading "Trusted Computing".
- DefectiveByDesign.org is the FSF's campaign to eliminate DRM - head here for lots of information on DRM and ways to take action
- Opposing Digital Rights Mismanagement, an interview of Richard Stallman by BusinessWeek Online about DRM
- Boycott Blu-Ray
- Reaction to the DRM clause in GPLv3, blog entry by David "novalis" Turner
- Free software without the freedom?, blog entry by John Sullivan about DRM
Statements regarding DRM
- 2015: Library of Congress issues limited exemptions to DMCA anti-circumvention provisions but leaves users without full control over their own computing
- 2014: FSF condemns partnership between Mozilla and Adobe to support Digital Restrictions Management
- 2013: The W3C's soul is at stake by Richard Stallman
- 2010: The iPad is iBad for freedom
Past actions
- 2016 marked the tenth anniversary of the International Day Against DRM.
- In March 2016, the FSF led a protest at the World Wide Web Consortium office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, opposing a proposal to add Encrypted Media Extensions to Web standards.
- Also in March 2016, the FSF submitted a comment (with over 1200 cosigners) to the U.S. Copyright Office regarding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention provisions.
- In 2015, activists from Bangladesh to Boston took action for the International Day Against DRM.
- In 2014, the global community rallied for the International Day Against DRM.
- In 2013, a coalition of Internet freedom organizations urged the W3C to reject Encrypted Media Extensions in the HTML5 standard.
- In May 2012, a coalition of like-minded organizations joined the FSF for the International Day Against DRM.
- In 2010, Defective by Design delivered a four-foot tall "tablet" petition against the iPad to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
- In 2009, a coalition led by the FSF's Defective by Design campaign demanded that Amazon drop DRM from the Kindle.
- In August 2007, protesters in hazmat suits gathered outside the BBC to protest the use of DRM in the media company's iPlayer.
- Also in 2006, the FSF asked U2 bandleader Bono to take a stand against DRM.
- In 2006, hazmat suits greeted Microsoft developers as they gathered for a conference.
- In 2006, Richard stallman wrote a letter to the Boston Public Library condemning their use of DRM for public library audio books. You can help by sending your own letter to the Director of Library Services, and by contacting your own local library about its use of DRM in its eBook and digital media collections. Please let us know what you learn, and CC us on any letters you send at <campaigns@fsf.org>.
- October 3rd, 2006 was the first International Day Against DRM.
- In 2006, 4565 people signed this pledge to refuse music CDs that use DRM.
Other sites of interest
- Trusted Computing: An Animated Short Story
- by Benjamin Stephen and Lutz Vogel