I think that W3C is what makes us believe we're sitting at the table when it comes to decide where the web is heading, when in reality we're not. So while I think W3C has good intentions and is acting in good faith (I'm somewhat undecided on DRM, please convince me of your opinion), I hope for a push to bring the lack of stewardship of the web to public attention, and another standards body (ISO/IEC, IETF, whatever), or W3C under a new statue to emerge and take the role of W3C-as-it-is.
> I'm somewhat undecided on DRM, please convince me of your opinion
OK.
You can send someone encrypted data over the internet, with the decryption keys hidden in your software, and decide exactly how that person's computer reads that data. The only way for them to read the data that is now on their system is by using the encryption keys you sent them, but they can't possibly find those keys; only your software can. There is no way for the user to cough debugger cough find the keys, or copy the now decrypted data from their own system.
Of course, that was obviously a bald-faced lie. That lie is so popular, it has a name: Digital Rights Management (DRM).
Of course, corporate executives love this lie. They don't care how impossible or absurd it is, they want DRM to be reality. Why? Piracy. They think to themselves, "if all these people who copy my media have to pay me, then I will make more money!". So, without a second thought, they jump to coercion.
Of course, no matter how hard you try, DRM cannot stop piracy. There are billions of people out there, and all it takes is one to share your content. Some of them use debuggers to find that "secret" key, others just use raw computing power to record the raw data. After all, that computing power is relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of a handful of Blue-Rays at full price.
Of course, the realistic decision would be to give up on DRM, but that ignores just how much these executives hate piracy. They have not only created a culture of hatred using propaganda, they have legitimized their fears using copyright law.
They have such tight control over our law that they even got a new law: "Section 1201 of Title 17 under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)". This law explicitly makes it illegal to find those "secret" keys we talked about earlier, in other words, "break DRM".
So now DRM "works" from a legal standpoint. No actual logic supports the lie, but now it's the law, and has the full force of US law enforcement that make it the truth.
So, whatever, I just have to get the Netflix app, or use EME now. No big deal, right? I'm an honest person! I want to support creators anyway! Screw piracy! I don't have to care about this, right?
Wrong.
Remember Section 1201? Well that doesn't only prevent people from copying movies from HBO or Netflix. It makes it illegal to "break" any DRM. It turns out that "DRM" is a pretty abstract lie. Like other neat abstractions (Monads, anyone?) it can be applied in some "neat", unexpected ways. Here are a few:
To quote Cory Doctorow, "We literally have DRM up the ass".
So next time you want to refill a printer cartridge, turn on the lights, or accurately check body temperature, understand that you might have to struggle with that because of DRM, and that anyone who wants to help you, or publish security vulnerabilities, will be breaking the law.
As far as I can tell this is mostly the EFF being sore losers over the DRM issue. They only joined W3C so they could oppose it, now they are leaving since they failed. While I'm neither here nor there on the DRM issue, the EFF leaving isn't exactly the big deal they are making it out to be.
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[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 27.3 ms ] threadOK.
You can send someone encrypted data over the internet, with the decryption keys hidden in your software, and decide exactly how that person's computer reads that data. The only way for them to read the data that is now on their system is by using the encryption keys you sent them, but they can't possibly find those keys; only your software can. There is no way for the user to cough debugger cough find the keys, or copy the now decrypted data from their own system.
Of course, that was obviously a bald-faced lie. That lie is so popular, it has a name: Digital Rights Management (DRM).
Of course, corporate executives love this lie. They don't care how impossible or absurd it is, they want DRM to be reality. Why? Piracy. They think to themselves, "if all these people who copy my media have to pay me, then I will make more money!". So, without a second thought, they jump to coercion.
Of course, no matter how hard you try, DRM cannot stop piracy. There are billions of people out there, and all it takes is one to share your content. Some of them use debuggers to find that "secret" key, others just use raw computing power to record the raw data. After all, that computing power is relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of a handful of Blue-Rays at full price.
Of course, the realistic decision would be to give up on DRM, but that ignores just how much these executives hate piracy. They have not only created a culture of hatred using propaganda, they have legitimized their fears using copyright law.
They have such tight control over our law that they even got a new law: "Section 1201 of Title 17 under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)". This law explicitly makes it illegal to find those "secret" keys we talked about earlier, in other words, "break DRM".
So now DRM "works" from a legal standpoint. No actual logic supports the lie, but now it's the law, and has the full force of US law enforcement that make it the truth.
So, whatever, I just have to get the Netflix app, or use EME now. No big deal, right? I'm an honest person! I want to support creators anyway! Screw piracy! I don't have to care about this, right?
Wrong.
Remember Section 1201? Well that doesn't only prevent people from copying movies from HBO or Netflix. It makes it illegal to "break" any DRM. It turns out that "DRM" is a pretty abstract lie. Like other neat abstractions (Monads, anyone?) it can be applied in some "neat", unexpected ways. Here are a few:
[printer cartridges](https://www.wired.com/2016/09/hp-printer-drm/) [light bulbs](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151214/07452133070/light...) [rectal thermometers](https://boingboing.net/2016/01/14/the-internet-of-things-in-...)
To quote Cory Doctorow, "We literally have DRM up the ass".
So next time you want to refill a printer cartridge, turn on the lights, or accurately check body temperature, understand that you might have to struggle with that because of DRM, and that anyone who wants to help you, or publish security vulnerabilities, will be breaking the law.