‘Defective by Design.’

Alexander Young — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:41:38 +0000

The Free Software Foundation, as part of their Defective by Design anti-DRM campaign, have undertaken something of a festive approach to their latest efforts: they are in the process of producing a ‘35 Days against DRM’ series of articles, no doubt a nod to the ubiquitously understood ‘12 Days of Christmas’. Whilst noble in and of itself, the entire effort falls down when they suggest that the most inanane of efforts be attempted in order to compaign against DRM: a boycott of the iTunes paid service. The concern for DRM being a niche concern as it is, what do the FSF really hope that this call to arms of the very small number of interested parties that it has within very limited demographics can accomplish? The best that they can hope for this that MC Chris’ label realises that sales have died for a day, and such niche artists may move to a DRM-free distribution method. This won’t change anything worthwhile, unfortunately: the biggest digital music distributor in the world won’t be held back by the readers of the 300,000th most well-read (according to Alexa) website in the world – the fact is simply that most people don’t care about these limitations.

It really does pain me to say this, especially with my fervent distaste for DRM methods, but it’s here to stay for the time being: every new medium has its own DRM methods built in, be it HDTV or Blu-ray. Of course, the ingenuity of those who would not wish to be encumbered by such draconian restrictions on their use of the media which they have purchased will always eventually triumph over the efforts of the media conglomerates: just as BD+ was cracked in a matter of months the first time, it will be again with this new revision.

A Distorted Reality. » free software foundation

‘Defective by Design.’