lev's blog

One DefectiveByDesign member phoned up Susan Peacock, Vice President of the Canadian Motion Picture Distribution Association and spoke with her for an hour. She was completely open to having a real, respectful conversation about the dangers of DRM. Give her a call and have a chat.

We've begun work on the Short Guide to Living a DRM-Free Existence. It includes online music stores, producers of eBooks, and portable music players that respect the rights of the user. They give you the freedom to enjoy the media you own on the devices you own, without worrying about whether the latest album you bought will be compliant with a particular flavor of Digital Restrictions Management.

So check out the guide now, and let us know if you have other resources you would like to add.

Thanks to the diligent work of the DRM Elimination Crew, we now have a selection of buttons for use on blogs and other websites. Code snippets for posting these buttons are available. Let the world know you support DefectiveByDesign.org in putting a stop to Digital Restrictions Management.

Get your button now!

Ken Fischer, over at Ars Technica, has a great breakdown of a Q and A session at Siggraph that got a little heated. Apparently Mitch Singer, executive director of the digital policy group at Sony, had to endure some awkward questions about DRM. Ars Technica has that story.

Karen Sandler, an attorney from the Software Freedom Law Center, challenged Singer: "I am deeply suspicious of DRM technology in part because the DRM we see now says that it protects copyright law, but it also prevents legitimate use, for parody, news and education. (It) is overbroad for legitimate use. As the restriction stands now, when public material falls in to the public domain, the DRM tech stays in place and does not fall away. DRM also has the potential to compromise privacy and security."

The engineers have been hard at work in their labs, bringing you a brand new DefectiveByDesign.org! Beyond the cosmetic changes, you'll also notice a "Languages" controller in the right hand menu. Thanks to the hard work of members of the DefectiveByDesign action network, we've begun offering site content in a diversity of languages. But we still need more help! If you would like to submit a translation, fill out a "Site Translation" form at our contact page.