The NYU Free Culture Club will protest DRM on Thursday 27 October 2005 at the Virgin Record Store on 14th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, starting at 7:00 pm.
This protest was originally scheduled for Tuesday 25 October 2005. For more information see: http://wiki.freeculturenyu.org/wiki/index.php?title=DRM_Protest Below is the body of the notice already sent out. Exhortation remains in effect and on schedule. Jay Sulzberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Corresponding Secretary LXNY LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization. http://www.lxny.org Exhortatory Note from Jay Sulzberger Below my signature is a copy of the announcement by the NYU Free Culture Club of the protest. DRM is more than an annoyance, and more than an assault on "consumer rights". DRM is larger and worse: http://www.panix.com/~jays/what.is.drm.3 http://www.nyfairuse.org/action/palladium The next few months offer several opportunities to take the battle to the other side. In particular, in early December 2005 the Library of Congress will accept proposals for exemptions to the DMCA Anti-Circumvention Clauses. Let us prepare and let us propose and let us rebut and let us attend the hearings. http://www.sethf.com/publications/dmca-guide.php And let us, oldbies and GNUbies and free BSDians, and all of the Free Software Movement, help at this protest! Let us help by showing up. And let us explain that the issue is not a matter of convenience, but rather of fundamental human rights. Jay Sulzberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Corresponding Secretary LXNY LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization. http://www.lxny.org <blockquote what="official NYU Free Culture Club announcement"> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Subject: Washington Square News - X-URL: http://www.nyunews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/10/18/43546858c6630?in_archive=1 DRM technology injures consumer rights by Laura Berger October 18, 2005 On Oct. 25 at 7 p.m., the Free Culture Club is holding a protest in front of the Virgin Records store at 14th Street and Broadway. The purpose of this protest is to educate customers about the use of digital rights management technology that might be be placed on CDs unbeknownst to the customer and to encourage Virgin to use a label that clearly indicates and explains DRM technology on CDs that have DRM technology blocks. Many CDs currently on sale have DRM technologies on them in order to prevent the customer from duplicating copyrighted music. The technology can work in a number of ways, anything from scrambling the legitimate audio data to sneakily installing software onto users computers. But the intention is always the same: to prevent the consumer from making a digital copy of the content. The problem with DRM is that this technology actually restricts consumers from transferring their new CD onto their computer, or even making a backup copy. As a college student who loves her iPod and uses her computer as a jukebox more often then not, this restriction struck me as deeply unjust. There's a provision in U.S. copyright law about fair use, which establishes that if there is a reasonable and legitimate legal use for a technology, it should be legal. The fair-use doctrine allows ripping CDs to a computer so that people who purchase music can put their music onto their iPods. This is also what allows people to use their computer to play the music. College students, who often don't have the space to keep both a computer and a sound system in their dorms, tend to have just the former. They are especially harmed by DRM, which prohibits ripping and prevents them from playing CDs on their computers. Fine, you might say. So I won't buy a CD that uses DRM. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to tell a CD with DRM from a regular one without using it first. There is no requirement that these CDs to be sold with a special label or warning, and because most music stores won't allow customers to return a CD after it has been unwrapped, customers can find out for themselves for $15. Pirates, whom this technology is designed to hinder, are usually technologically savvy enough to get around the DRM software, but the average customer won't be able to use the CD that was legally purchased. This technology is designed to prevent illegal duplication of music but, in the end, all it ends up doing is harming the innocent and technologically naive. DRM restrictions have also made an impact on buying music from the iTunes music store. The DRM attached to the iTunes music allows users to copy a song a certain number of times. If the customer wants to make more copies than is allowed, they could "hack" the DRM (using a program called FairTunes), but unfortunately, according to "The Customer is Always Wrong", the Electronic Frontier Foundation=E2s guide, breaking the DRM or distributing the tools to break DRM may expose you to liability under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act even if you're not making any illegal uses. Organizations like Free Culture and the EFF support your fair-use rights to the music you legitimately purchase and thereby object to technologies like DRM. While we support artists rights, we also contend that consumer rights are just as important. DRM constricts, if not totally undermines, the doctrine of fair use and there is currently little opposition toward more record companies implementing it. Record companies and stores need to hear from the people who count, namely consumers, that we notice and care about the substantial negative consequences of DRM. If you want to find out more about DRM and other copyright, technology and cultural issues, check our website or come to our protest. We'll be handing out flyers, talking to consumers and raising awareness about DRM and new technologies. Copyright should be about helping artists make music that consumers want to support and participate in, not about helping record executives fatten their revenue streams and lock consumers into backward technologies. The point of copyright law is to protect the artists, not the record labels, and it's not supposed to hurt the general law-abiding, music-purchasing public. Laura Berger is an op/ed contributor for WSN. E-mail responses to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Note: Most newer browsers don't need a print-friendly version of this article. Just click File, then Print from your browser's menu at the previous page. _________________________________________________________________ 2005 Washington Square News </blockquote> _______________________________________________ Gnu-misc-discuss mailing list Gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
