Imagine a used car salesman putting up big signs advertising "unbroken cars." That's exactly what Wal-Mart, Amazon, and Microsoft are doing. Their marketing campaigns are based on the fact that their music is DRM-free. Wow, thanks, you've caught up to the gramophone. Not only are you going to sell me the music I'm paying for, but you aren't even going to wrap it up in technology that is defective by design.
It's taking a while, but maybe Warner Music is finally starting to get the hint. They didn't get it after Steve Jobs showed initial signs of comprehension, so we decided back in April that someone needed to initiate a
Here at DefectiveByDesign we have been working towards the goal of making Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) a socially unacceptable technology practice. That message is spreading.
Read the Press Reports and Response from the BBC
We have had beautiful weather in London since I arrived in the UK on August 4. But today with the protest about to kick off it's tipping down. I'm in my hired car and "luckily" I get a puncture right outside BBC television center on Wood Lane. With no parking in the area, this gives me 90 minutes for the road side rescue to come and change my tire without getting towed. With hazmat suits, large signs and flyers to drop off, this makes life much easier.
Protests in London and Manchester on Tuesday, August 14 
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It's been a while since we have talked about RIAA's legal strategy of suing folks for alleged infringement, but this week brough some good news. Ray Beckerman reports on his block hat the Judge in Capitol v. Foster has awarded the defendant legal fees to the tune of $68 thousand dollars after tossing out the RIAA's case with prejudice, and subsequent appeal.
Wired and others are carrying the story that Microsoft's ZUNE DRM has been cracked. Proving again, that just about any DRM scheme will be cracked sooner or later.
TorrentFreak has announced the winners of their anti-DRM t-shirt contest. You can order shirts printed with the designs, or you can download the source files and print your own. The winners are strikingly effective designs and are a great way to get people thinking about DRM—I just ordered #3 for myself. Kudos to all 50 of the entering artists for taking the time to apply their skills to help communicate this important message, and congratulations to the winners!
This afternoon Information Week published a great article by Cory Doctorow about how big corporations and shadowy associations and working groups collude to develop DRM schemes and the laws that mandate them.
The piece is very long, and very good. Everyone who is interested in this sort of thing should give it a read and then tell your friends and family about it.
Here is a choice excerpt from the beginning:
HMV seems like the latest big name to join the DRM Free MP3 sales market. Looks like they plan to undercut iTMS in an attempt to increase sales.
HMV and other bricks and mortar music stores haven't been doing so well of late as sales of physical CDs have been dropping.
The iPhone hype hides a basic problem with the product – Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) inside the iPhone means that it wont be under your control. Apple has built this “smart” phone to dumb you down. They also want you to switch your cell phone service to AT&T – who collaborated with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive, illegal program to wiretap and data mine Americans' communications.
Today the FSF announces the release of the GPLv3. The announcement coincidentally is on the same day as Apple's much awaited iPhone release.
As the GPLv3 press release states:
“Tivoization” is a term coined by the FSF to describe devices that are built with free software, but that use technical measures to prevent the user from making modifications to the software—a fundamental freedom for free software users—and an attack on free software that the GPLv3 will put a stop to.
ArsTechnica reports thatEMI's DRM Free tracks on iTMS Plus are selling VERY well with double and triple digit percentage increases. As ArsTechnica points out, some of the increase could be a result of users looking to upgrade already purchased tracks, but that still means that users are willing to pay the extra 30 cents to loose the DRM.
EMI execs are expressing confidence that the trend will continue, and other labels are considering joining them, probably when more data has come in.
Last week the Free Software Foundation announced that version 3 of the GNU GPL (GPLv3), will be released on June 29th.
On this date many thousands of free software projects will start to switch to this license. And GPLv3 is squarely aimed at defeating DRM.
Many corporations use GPL covered works to build their products. The successful adoption of GPLv3 will help limit DRM to those products built with proprietary software. Those products will be less attractive to consumers, more expensive, and less useful.
Binary Freedom just launched FreeTheBBC.info with an open letter to the BBC regarding their decision to use proprietary formats and DRM despite overwhelming public comment early this year in support of open formats and content free of DRM.
A few months back, AnywhereCD launched offering a new service, buy a physicals cd AND get the digital download immediately. Anywhere made deals with numerous record companies, including Warner. Shortly after launch, Warner cried foul. The lawsuits started flying.
This week brings news of a settlement. Under the terms, you can get your warner CDs and MP3 from AnywhereCD until September.
Just read a good piece by Jeremy Allison over on ZDNET. Why DRM won't ever work is a good explanation of the fundamental flaws with the concept and implementation of DRM. It is a great piece to share with folks who don't understand DRM.
The Christian Science Monitor has a good article about classical music without DRM.
The article makes the point that digital sales of classical music are pretty high and that classical music fans are willing to spend money on digital music sales for larger files.
Industry figures are hopeful that dropping copy protection – thus allowing for big, clear-sounding and noncompressed audio files – will generate even stronger interest in classical downloads.
and
Time Magazine ran an article last week about DRM. It gets alot right, and speaks in non geek terms:
Off the record, most executives--on the technology side at least--will tell you that DRM is a dinosaur that's waiting for the asteroid to hit. It's just a matter of when the music industry will stop assuming its customers are all criminals.
On Friday, DefectiveByDesign members hit the streets to tell the public about Disney, DRM and the Intellectual Property Protection Act 2007 (IPPA2007).
UPDATE:
In Boston a large group composed of DefectiveByDesign members, and activists from FreeCulture.org and BinaryFreedom.info gathered, at Boston's main cinema on Boston Common.
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.
Another nail in the coffin for DRM on digital music downloads. Amazon officially announced this week that it will sell digital music without DRM in the MP3 format (which still is proprietary and covered by software patents).
Now that the record labels are starting to drop DRM, major retailers like Amazon are announcing their plans to distribute music unencumbered by DRM. This is a huge victory!
On Monday the disgraced Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who has done a pretty good job of destroying the reputation of the Justice Department announced that he wants to destroy computer users rights by proposing laws to protect "intellectual property".
But they don't want to drop the restrictions! Earlier this week an HBO Executive, Bob Zitter, caught alot of flack in the blogosphere (and rightly so) for suggesting the only problem with DRM is the name, and that renaming the same restrictions "Digital Consumer Enablement" would solve the problem.
We like to point to a quote from a Disney exec from a ways back "If the consumer even knows there is a DRM we've lost." And by all accounts, they've all lost! Through the work of groups like ours, we have informed users about DRM. And now they don't want it.
In a detailed article, ArsTechnica looks at whether or not the RIAA could be tried under the RICO statutes that have typically been used to prosecute organized crime.
And the conclusion:
Earlier this week Boing Boing covered the BBC Trusts poor decision to opt for proprietary formats and DRM in their online offerings. Ars Technica has a good article on the decision. If you are a UK resident, you should continue to make your displeasure with DRM known to BBC.
In a little over 2 days over 1200 people have signed the open letter to Edgar Bronfman, Jr. of Warner Music.
Spread the word to your friends or sign it today if you have not yet. We'll be sending it out Friday afternoon.
