Anti-DRM demonstrations at Apple Stores

Only in the USA can people muster the passion and commitment to protest something as mundane and trivial as DRM. What shallow, empty, meaningless lives these people must live.

I did read the website, and what I saw was more FSF "the sky is falling" hyperbole. By saying there "is no more important cause" than defeating DRM, the FSF is attempting to marginalize issues of real importance, such as the shoddy way companies and governments handle private, personal data, the "digital divide", and the involvement of western corporations in creating a *real* Orwellian electronic environment across the Pacific (done without the dreaded DRM boogeyman, BTW).

Lately, I've come to expect this kind of melodrama from the FSF. Reasoned discussion has been replaced by dogma and its own brand of Orwellian new-speak. Its changed from the 'Free Software Foundation' to the 'Fundamentalist Software Foundation'.

The purpose to call your attention on DRM. They just want you to be informed. Please read http://www.defectivebydesign.org and www.fsf.org.

I won't buy music from the iTMS. Now I'll only purchase it from eMusic (GASP! An online music service that works with iPods despite the lie that no other online service works with iTunes.) or in CD form. Of course, this has nothing to do with DRM and more to do with sound quality. I'm sure if it were DRM, I'd be forgetting all the alternatives (that are sometimes cheaper!) too.

@ AstroBoy: Amen, brother.

I took one look at the "DefectiveByDesign" website and realized these people need a huge dose of reality...

According the DBD website (and I suppose, by extension, their parent organization, the FSF), "There is no more important cause for electronic freedoms and privacy than the call for action to stop DRM from crippling our digital future". I did a spit-take on that one.

Is the FSF's DBD campaign protesting the "digital divide" between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' of the world? No. Are they protesting the careless manner in which many companies and governments handle databases full sensitive, personal information on their customers/citizens? No. Are they protesting internet censorship in countries like China, where history (like Tiananmen Square) is whitewashed and speaking out on the internet can get you arrested (or worse)? No. They are protesting their inability to buy songs on Napster and play them on an iPod. That's the most "important cause for electronic freedom"?!?!

Apparently no one associated with this organization has ventured out of their parents' basement for a while, except to don silly hazmat suits and protest the unfairness of iPods.

Ok, one more quick response then I'm done.

Christopher:

Apology accepted. I kind of figured you were aiming at somebody else.

"But it is their use of software to lock people into hardware (and the the use of that hardware to lock people into software) that is monopolistic about Apple's actions. (iTMS requires Ipods reuires iTMS requires iPods ad nauseum -- ther is no way to break this lock)."

Not absolutely true. It is true that if I want have my m4a files from ITMS mobile as individual files on a small, individual DMP, than the iPod is my only choice. I don't, however, need the iPod to partake of ITMS. Nor do I need ITMS partake of my iPod. I can listen to my ITMS purchases over my computer - Mac or PC - either over my computer's speakers, or I can run a cable from my computer to my stereo and listen that way. No iPod is needed to do this. Also, if person wanted to, they could load their music onto their laptop and listen to their music portably (granted, this may not be as convenient as a DMP, but it's still a way to listen outside of a iPod.). Also, you can burn your ITMS purchases onto a CD, which can be listened to on most CD players and CD Rom drives; even on DVD players. Conversely, I can take any playable CD (besides Sony's poisoned root kit CDs), rip it to my hard drive, load it to my iPod, and never set foot (figuratively, of course) near ITMS. One does not lock me into another.

The so-called monopoly Apple seems to hold is a natural one so far. It hasn't gained it's positioning by strong-arm tactics or by doing anything illegal; it just filled a gap. The fairplay DRM's iPod exclusivity doesn't bother me at this point because the download segment of the music industry is still in its infancy. Very often, a market segment will emerge where one company seems to dominate. As time goes on, most often, market pressures will make it so everything balances out. What Apple is doing with Fairplay and the iPod is not unique, since both Microsoft and Sony both have proprietary DRMs. I think the prudent thing for now is to let the market work itself out. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a standardized DRM in 5 years.

It's not as if Apple's afraid of licensing; just look at the mass market of iPod accessories. Maybe Apple's agreement with the RIAA stipulates that Fairplay cannot be licensed for X number of years. One never knows when the RIAA's involved.

"I am wondering about one thing: Who is paying Christopher Williams? Who organized and bankrolls Defective by Design?"

This is very typical on TUAW. I disagree with a decision that Apple is making, and suddenly I'm being funded by anti-Apple campaigns. Whatever happened to "Think Different?" Apparently one can't if one disagrees with Apple.

Get real dude.

'Twould be fun Ian. I usually play in DisasterousConsequences, a mostly Invasion server, but I'm always down for some DM. My Unreal name is 'vasago,' feel free to ping me online sometime.

Do you ever play online Dave? I might like to test myself against you.