We created this fact sheet (PDF)for use at May 25th Actions around the world. Download your own copy, print some out and give them to friends.

The EFF has a good article on the legal issues surrounding the AACS encryption key that made such a stir on Digg earlier this week.

"MPAA Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman told an industry gathering that the industry "wholeheartedly supports legitimate copying." (since when? Ed) So reports StreamingMedia today in a nice wrap up of recent DRM related news.

Glickman was addressing a conference on the topic of DRM. He does support DRM, of course, but would really like the ever elusive interoperable type - the type that would allow user's right to copy content they have legally acquired but somehow prevent sharing.

"There are some ideas that are broken, but attractive enough to some people that they are doomed to be tried again and again. DRM is one of them."
Mark Shuttleworth (of Ubuntu Fame) writes on his personal blog recently about the futility of DRM specifically focusing on video. It is a well written piece that should be mandatory for anyone working in the content industry.

Buried in the press coverage from Monday's announcement about EMI and Apple dropping DRM from EMI tracks in the iTMS was this quote from Steve Jobs:

"Video is pretty different from music right now because the video industry does not distribute 90 percent of their content DRM free. Never has. So I think they are in a pretty different situation and I wouldn't hold it to a parallel at all."

As part of the Free Culture video contest, a number of folks have submitted fantastic videos that highlight the problems with DRM. These videos are a great way to spread the word.
Digg This Story!

Here are the winners.

The Phoenix ran a piece on FreeCulture.org's video conference related to October 3rd:

But if you’re a consumer, it’s more accurate to say it stands for Digital Restrictions Management. (Or, in the case of Sony-BMG’s roo tk it, which deposits all manner of intrusive and concealed software on a user’s computer, Digital Restrictions Malware.) “It prevents you from using the content that you have bought the way you want to,” says Nelson Pavlosky, co-founder of the international student movement FreeCulture.org. “And because there are laws against circumventing this copy protection, uses that would otherwise be legal suddenly become illegal. If I wanted to make a back-up copy of a CD that I bought, which is legal under fair use, the DRM physically stops me — and the laws that enforce DRM legally stop me.”

VideoLAN is a DRM-free video player for Windows, Mac and Linux OSs, capable of DVD playback and streaming video. It even lets you skip over those annoying ads at the beginning of DVDs.

Miro is a DRM-free platform for watching streaming internet video. They write: "We're developing the Miro internet TV platform so that watching internet video channels will be as easy as watching TV and broadcasting a channel will be open to everyone. Unlike traditional TV, everyone will have a voice." This project was formerly known as Democracy TV.

4Flix.net offers an online video store. For just $1.99 you can download classic films featuring John Wayne, Frank Sinatra and many more. These films are free of DRM and therefore will play on any video device, including the new Apple iPods.

Kent Bye of the Echo Chamber Project and Ebb and Flow posted this video of the SF Apple Action. It is very well produced, and does a good job of presenting our position WRT Apple/iTunes.

The EFF has a great new animation up. Pass it on to your friends, and keep spreading the word. The Corruptibles: mild-mannered copyright legislation by day, infringers of our freedoms by night!

• The Corruptibles at the EFF
• The Corruptibles at YouTube