I sometimes ponder that there are good reasons why commerce and crime
begin with the same letter.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Defective by Design to continue opposition as DRM moves closer
to Web standards
Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2016 18:13:44 -0400
From: Zak Rogoff, DBD <[email protected]>
Reply-To: Zak Rogoff, DBD <[email protected]>
/Read online:
https://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/web_drm_standard_next_phase_dbd_continued_opps/
Despite dedicated resistance by tens of thousands of Web users and civil
society groups, Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee has allowed *Encrypted
Media Extensions (EME)* to move to the next phase of development within
the *World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)*.
EME (full text <https://www.w3.org/TR/encrypted-media>) is a proposed
technological standard for Web-based *Digital Restrictions Management
(DRM)
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management>*,
digital handcuffs that video-streaming services use to micromanage
users' access to legitimately obtained media. As Web users asserted
while protesting the W3C's meeting this March
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/from-the-web-to-the-streets-protesting-drm>,
DRM is coercive, disempowering and insulting to users. It also causes
broad collateral damage to the health of our digital society. DRM's dark
history — from the Sony rootkit malware
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/ten-years-after-sony-rootkit> to
draconian anti-circumvention laws
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/end-DMCA-anti-circumvention-provisions> —
demonstrates that integrating it into Web standards would be nothing but
bad for the Web's users. It is predicted to stymie security research,
curtail privacy, freedom, and accessibility, and set back the
interoperability that is necessary for innovation on the Web. There is
considerable dissent about EME within the W3C — staff member Harry
Halpin has pledged to resign
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/w3c_staff_member_pledges_resignation_if_drm_added_web_standards> if
it becomes an official standard.
Defective by Design campaigns manager Zak Rogoff made this statement:
"The W3C and its director, Tim Berners-Lee, are abdicating their
responsibility — as stated in their official design principles
<https://www.w3.org/TR/html-design-principles/> — to put users first
in the design of the Web. We had hoped that Berners-Lee would uphold
the vision of inclusion and empowerment that he articulated in his
famous Tweet about the Web: 'This is for everyone.' But by allowing
EME to continue, he has given license to Netflix, Google and media
owners to warp the Web so that it works firstly for them.
We are inspired by the worldwide network of activists who have
joined us in our struggle for the freedom-respecting Web we deserve.
Defective by Design will continue to escalate our campaign,
deploying new and creative forms of resistance until EME is stopped."
The EME standardization effort, sponsored by streaming giants like
Google and Netflix, aims to take advantage of the W3C's influence over
Web technology to make it cheaper and more efficient to impose DRM
systems. As of yesterday, the EME proposal is now upgraded from Working
Draft to Candidate Recommendation within the W3C's process. Under the
W3C's rules there are at least three more chances to pull the plug on
EME before it becomes a ratified standard, also known as a W3C
Recommendation.
*W3C member organizations wishing to join the campaign against EME are
invited to contact Defective by Design at [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>. Concerned individuals can start by
signing Defective by Design's petition
<https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create%3Fgid%3D183%26reset%3D1> or
adding a protest selfie to the growing gallery
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/selfie-against-drm-in-web-standards>.*
Zak Rogoff
Campaigns Manager
Follow us at https://status.fsf.org/dbd | Subscribe to our blog via RSS
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/rss.xml> | Donate to support the
campaign <https://crm.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=40>
Defective by Design is a campaign of the Free Software Foundation:
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