12.19.20
Gemini version available ♊︎If Azure is Collapsing and Clown Computing a Passing Fad, Why Can’t DRM Go Away as Well?
Many people wrongly assume DRM is here to stay; we don’t.
Summary: A quick discussion about the sorts of findings we’ve made regarding DRM in Linux (especially the kernel, but sometimes Web browsers too) and why it’s misguided to treat it as inevitable or even celebrate it
DRM is a mechanism by which to impose remote power/authority (akin to back doors) — a technical ‘hack’ that twists encryption against its intended purposes so as to make computers not obey or even betray their users, in effect superficially limiting control by the user over the files/devices on his or her machine. There are moral issues at play; ethics and human rights factor in.
“…some clown from Microsoft has just come to #techrights (IRC) to confirm to us Azure layoffs (this year).”Myself, personally, I’ve not encountered DRM or used anything with it. It’s a choice. But many other people get sucked in or suckered into ‘buying’ things which they later discover they only temporarily rented (on ‘loan’ as long as some licensing servers remained online). If we care about more than Linux (or GNU/Linux) and if software freedom matters to us, DRM as a concept or a modality needs to go away. It’s alluring to just say “that’s the way things are”, but it’s possible to fight back and maybe eradicate DRM in all its forms.
Wrongly believing that we can never defeat DRM is exactly the kind of thing that will encourage defeatism, thus discouraging us from fighting back. But DRM — like all that “smart” hype and Adobe Flash (the old DRM container) — can certainly go away in the long run. The same is true for “Clown Computing” — the hype wave that asks us to go back to mainframes mentality (buying computer time from few large companies instead of getting our own servers/machines). Speaking of “Clown”, some clown from Microsoft has just come to #techrights (IRC) to confirm to us Azure layoffs (this year). The person says those employees were “largely concentrated under Eric Boyd”…
Let’s push back against DRM. Don’t give up. We can do this, but it’ll be a long war, not an overnight triumph. The articles in the video above are included as links below. █
- Linux is Not Free Software and It’s Getting Harder to Fix It
- Research Into Who’s Putting DRM Inside Linux
- Intel Worked to Eradicate Supposedly ‘Offensive’ Words From Linux While Inserting More and More Technically Offensive DRM Into Linux (Back Doors as Well)
- Bringing DRM to GNU/Linux to Attract the Stereotypical ‘Gamers’
- “DRM is Probably 70% of the Complication in Supporting Open Source”
- New Claims That Brendan Eich Got Abused and Pushed Out for Opposing DRM, Not for Opposing Gay Marriage Some Time in the Past
- DRM (Proprietary Software) Already Makes Mozilla Firefox Broken, Unreliable, Undependable (Dependent on Binary Blobs)
- Can We Quit Celebrating DRM in GNU/Linux?
- The Web is Becoming More Proprietary and Means for Accessing the Web Likewise (Now With DRM and With Limited — by Design — Compatibility)
- Unintended Effect of DRM in GNU/Linux
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