Brian Thomas Sniffen wrote:
Brian M Hunt <2bh5@qlink.queensu.ca> writes:I was contemplating the conundrum of open source digital rights management, and would like some feedback. If someone were to write digital rights software, eg. for downloading from iTunes, could they license it under a free software license like the GPL, with an added clause:"If the Program is designed to uphold digital rights management pursuant to the distribution of copyrighted material, any modification to the Program to undermine the terms of distribution for that copyright will violate this license. All rights to publish, redistribute, and use the modified Program are revoked upon violation of this clause. Derivative works may not modify this license so as to remove this clause."That isn't DFSG-free, no.
To properly ground that in the DFSG: According to DFSG #3, in general, restrictions on modification are not free. While certain types of restrictions are allowed by other clauses (such as not allowing modifications that share the same name as the original work, only allowing derivative patches), and tradition allows certain other restrictions (such as requiring derivative works to maintain warranty disclaimers), this addition goes well beyond that.
It is arguably in violation of DFSG #6, since it discriminates against those who wish to modify the software for research or critical purposes. (Such as someone looking for security bugs in another DRM piece may want to throw very large buffers into the datastream)
I'd also say that it is almost a reverse of DFSG #9, in that actions taken with respect to another work's license (the DRM-protected work) can terminate your license for the DRMreader work. It's almost as if DRMreader is contaminated by the license for all DRM-protected work.
Finally, permission to "use" the work (particularly referring to computer software) is not regulated by copyright law, so it can not be revoked by a violation of the copyright license.
--Joe