Dear Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web Consortium:
If the W3C allows the incursion of DRM into the HTML5 Web Standard, it
will erode trust on a global scale.
As a middle aged mother, I've been learning (and sharing what I've
learned) about net neutrality, the importance of free software, free
culture, and an open Internet, ever since I began hand coding my own
HTML web pages [http://laurel.russwurm.org/] and participating on the
Internet in 2009. As a creator from a creative family, as well as
publishing my own content online, I run a blog for my eighty three year
old father. [http://lynn.russwurm.org/blogs/] I have come to consider
myself a netizen. [http://laurelrusswurm.tumblr.com/netizen]
One reason DRM is dangerous is that it can hide all manner of spyware
and malware from users. Another is that most people don't even know
what it is, or if they do, how to recognize it. While governments have
allowed large corporations and media conglomerates to cripple digital
products with DRM, there is no requirement anywhere in the world to to
inform customers or computer users of such application.
I have avoided DRM wherever possible, but even with the absurd extension
of copyright law, I have been certain that free culture will win out
eventually. But that confidence presupposes a free market.
In Canada where I live, our new Copyright Act makes it illegal to
circumvent DRM for any reason at all, even if the the circumvention is
allowed under our "fair dealing" exemptions, or if the DRM is applied
inappropriately. I consider the application of DRM to freely licensed
or public domain creative works to be inappropriate.
This is a huge concern for me, both as a cultural consumer and as a self
publishing author. Existing copyright law has prevented me from even
seeing the finished production of one of my own works.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110724/11180115223/writer-explains-how-copyright-has-prevented-her-ever-seeing-tv-shows-she-wrote.shtml
Independent creators and Internet users are already at a huge
disadvantage, because the large media special interests have the
wherewithal to successfully lobby governments around the world into
maximizing copyright laws and the attendant copyright monopoly, to their
own great benefit, at our expense.
These large and powerful special interest groups have long had a seat at
the W3C table. But where is there representation for Internet users?
Most of the public does not even know W3C exists, let alone how to
comment on an issue such as this. Although I am passionately interested
in the subject, until I read Harry Halpin's Guardian article last week,
I had no idea there was any way for Internet users or creators to
express our dismay beyond signing the Defective By Design's "Keep DRM
out of Web standards -- Reject the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME)
proposal" Petition. But Mr. Halpin pretty much implies that petition
wasn't enough.
Although Canada has been a world leader in Internet adoption, most
Canadians are still not online. For most of those who are,
participation on Facebook signifies the height of technical prowess.
Certainly most Canadians haven't even heard of the Guardian, and so will
not have even read the article.
Mr. Halpin essentially gave me the weekend to get the word out. This
weekend Identi.ca, the social network of choice for a great many people
who are aware of these issues, is undergoing a massive migration from a
backend of StatusNet to pump.io software. Many users like myself have
been consumed in setting up our own federated status net instances. As
well, those of us with privacy concerns have been caught up in the NSA
Prism news story. For myself, I've had two major family happenings this
weekend in addition to those pressing online issues.
[http://laurelrusswurm.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/tell-the-w3c-no-drm/]
Maybe a few people have read my blog post I wrote, but a weekend is not
much time. Especially considering that the special interests that want
DRM written into the Web Standard have been at the table for so very
much longer.
Until the W3C holds a widely publicized meaningful consultation process,
that Free Software Petition must be given at least as much weight as the
opinions of any other group of stakeholders. Perhaps more, since the
inclusion of DRM in the standard panders to the direct benefit of a
specific special interest lobby group. Internet Users are easily the
largest group of stakeholders, and our exclusion from the process means
that the W3C must look out for the public good.
Keeping even a whiff of DRM out of the Web Standard will not harm the
corporate special interests who lobby so effectively for it. They can
just continue on as they have been, locking their own content behind
DRM. Allowing the DRM toehold EME provides will lead to DRM becoming
the default.
DRM exists to break interoperability. If DRM is allowed into the W3C
Standard, it will become the W3C Standard. If W3C supports this, it
will sacrifice the free and open Internet, not just for us, but for
generations to come. Please don't do this.
Regards,
Laurel L. Russwurm
[note: this is my second attempt to post this letter to the W3C mailing
list as the first does not seem to have succeeded. If it turns out to
be a duplication, please disregard....llr]
