drm

Update 2010-01-25: We will be meeting outside the Theater at 8:30am (Wednesday 27th), and will go until at least 10:30am. Stay tuned to http://identi.ca/dbd for updates and coordination.

This coming Wednesday, January 27th, Apple has invited members of the media to San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater to "Come see our latest creation."

There has been much speculation about what Apple will be announcing, with most of it revolving around a possible tablet PC -- basically an oversized iPhone. But no matter the form factor, it's all but certain given the direction Apple has been going that any new product will be DRM-infected and restricted by proprietary software.

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The company who once announced to the world that they opposed DRM on music has been pushing DRM in every other area of their business. Apple's iPhone goes out of its way to apply DRM on every piece of software on the device, saying it is illegal for users to install software that comes from anywhere other than the official Application Store.

Can you imagine a world where this same restriction is applied to your laptop or tablet PC? That could very well be Apple's announcement on Wednesday -- their latest restriction.

As in the past, they didn't invite us to the event, but we thought we would go anyway, and bring some friends. We'll be there to warn the public and the media outside the event about Apple's support for DRM and proprietary software.

Come help create the counter story in the media -- take photos, talk to the press, and have fun with a little bit of theater to show that Apple is not the force for creative expression they claim to be.

We got through to Steve Jobs before on music DRM, and convinced iTunes to drop it. We know we can have success here. But we need to repeat that effort and show that DRM on Apple computers means that people who are actually interested in creativity and freedom will go elsewhere.

Press coverage of Apple events usually falls all over itself to praise the style and sleekness of their devices. It's vital that we be there to unmask the new product for what it undoubtedly will be -- another seamless case and pretty screen hiding a new set of restrictions and threats to the public's digital freedom.

We'll post the precise time and meeting location for our group here next week -- since Apple's event starts at 10am, attendees will be showing up at 9am, and we will want to be ready and outside the Theater by then to hand out flyers and talk to people.

I'll be there representing the FSF and coordinating the action. Please join us, and bring friends. Let us know you're coming at info@defectivebydesign.org.

We'll meet at 8:30am outside the Theater.

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We are not joking. Late last week, Amazon deleted purchased copies of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from the ebook readers of hundreds of users. New York Times tech writer David Pogue summarizes it best:

This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned ....

You want to know the best part? The juicy, plump, dripping irony? The author who was the victim of this Big Brotherish plot was none other than George Orwell. And the books were '1984' and 'Animal Farm.'

We're relaunching our "defective by design" tagging campaign, and we couldn't have asked for a better occasion or a better target. Here's what you can do:

1. Go to the Kindle Amazon page.

2. Give the Kindle a quick but thoughtful 1-star review.

3, Tag it "defectivebydesign", "kindle swindle", and "1984".

4. Do the same thing for the pricier version, the Kindle DX.

5. Digg this article!

6. Bonus: send a message to publishers by tagging Kindle books. Here are the top selling books for Kindle.

And here are some talking points you might use in your review:

1. When you buy a Kindle, Amazon controls it, not you. They can enter into your Kindle and delete your books at any time.

2. They recently deleted hundreds of readers' copies of 1984 without their permission (I'm not joking, Google "Amazon 1984").

3. Amazon's software allows them not only to delete books at any time, but also to cripple them -- as they did recently when they disabled the "read aloud" Text to Speech feature on already purchased titles.

4. Amazon refuses to clarify what exactly their DRM system can do, or how they will or won't use it. Deceptive advertising practices like this are currently being looked into by the Federal Trade Commission. Notice that there is no mention or warning of DRM on the Kindle page.

The New York Times article quoted a student who lost his notes and annotations when the book was deleted: "'They didn’t just take a book back, they stole my work,' he said."

We've campaigned against the Kindle before, and it's having an impact. Check out this op-ed in the Minneapolis / St. Paul Star Tribune by a columnist who noticed our campaign. He still bought the Swindle, but his article shows that the tags and reviews give shoppers significant pause.

The story caught fire over the weekend and was on the Times' "most emailed" list. Even people who don't know what DRM means appreciate the irony; they understand that there's something fundamentally wrong with technology that works this way. This is a perfect story to spread, and a perfect moment to target the Kindle for 1-star reviews.

Over the coming weeks, Sarah, Matt, John and I will be selecting more DRM-infected products for the tags and the 1-star reviews they deserve. We're looking for hot new products, or products that make particularly appalling use of DRM. If you'd like to suggest one, email us at info@defectivebydesign.org.