Software Free

." This is just old wine in new bottles -- Microsoft wants another way to control your activities.

Bruce Schneier has
brought

a new form of Digital Restrictions Management to our attention:

Microsoft is doing some of the most creative thinking along these lines,
with something it's calling "Digital Manners Policies." According to its
patent application, DMP-enabled devices would accept broadcast "orders"
limiting capabilities. Cellphones could be remotely set to vibrate mode in
restaurants and concert halls, and be turned off on airplanes and in
hospitals. Cameras could be prohibited from taking pictures in locker rooms
and museums, and recording equipment could be disabled in theaters.
Professors finally could prevent students from texting one another during
class.

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Source: DefectiveByDesign.org - The Campaign to Eliminate DRM

On Open Enterprise blog.

On Wednesday, Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced a bill that BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow described as making it "flatly illegal to break any kind of digital lock, or to violate terms in one of those absurd end-user license agreements that make you promise to agree to let the record industry kick your teeth in and drink all your beer, just for the dubious privilege of paying for a song at iTu

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“We want to educate open-source developers. There are certain business rules [developers] need to obey, such as DRM, IPR [intellectual property rights], SIM locks and subsidised business models.”

As technology progresses, old techniques will be replaced by the new one,and with the old techniques, goes irrelevant the jobs and revenue streams associated with them...But pre-digital era profit makers are not following the above rule and they are using the very same technology to make inconvenience that did not exist before..

–

## In this issue
* New FSF store
* Farewell Justin, Hello Danny
* DRM elimination crew at the Apple Store launch
* Savannah adds Subversion, Mercurial
* Freedom and privacy in the cloud: a call for action
* Boycott Windows Media Center!
* GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry
* Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF speeches
* Take Action with the FSF

Further moves towards restricting digital freedom and banning (Goodness forbid!) of FOSS

We regret to report the sudden, unexpected death of Digital Rights Management. Details of the tragedy at present remain unclear, but he was rushed to the hospital following a direct collision with an oncoming future last week at 10 PM. He was seven years old.

Here's a short but poignant meditation on the centrality of sharing to the joy of books:

Ultimately, I do not much care whether these books are paper or made of some other less organic substance, whether substrates and electrons, or plastic polymers. Instead what matters is that we are able to share books with each other; in return for the gift of spreading delight, a wait of days and the cost of media rate shipping are very modest penalties.

Whatever digital (ebook) books look like in the future, if they do not embody the right to share, in an unrestricted and platform independent manner, they will be poorer things.

This is called the first sale doctrine. It's part of why people love books -- a love built from sharing. It's what makes libraries possible. A world where content is licensed, and sold with restrictions on use, is a world less full of enthusiastic readers; less full of love.

To any publisher who sees the wisdom of DRM: don't.

(Via The Patry Copyright Blog.)

"If you put Microsoft at the center of your home entertainment system, be prepared to hand them the remote control, literally.

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Microsoft sets dangerous precedence with NBC, says the EFF

"Windows Vista gratuitously refused to record certain TV programs as a form of Digital Restrictions Management." -- via RMS website -- badvista in action: http://download.justinjas.com/broadcastflag.jpg

I’m a firm believer in the idea that if you pay for hardware, you should be able to make full use of it. However, DRM and content protection mechanisms are increasingly making this difficult for people.

Last night the DRM Elimination Crew attended the grand opening of Apple's new
store in Boston -- now its largest US store.

The clear glass front of the store stands in stark contrast to Apple's
unethical business practices, including using opaque Digital Restrictions
Management software to take rights away from its customers.

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