Re: FSF condemns partnership between Mozilla and Adobe to support Digital Restrictions Management

On Sun, May 18, 2014 at 2:15 PM, Gary Dale <garydale@torfree.net> wrote:

On 18/05/14 01:49 PM, Lee Winter wrote:

On Sun, May 18, 2014 at 12:35 PM, Gary Dale <garydale@torfree.net <mailto:garydale@torfree.net>> wrote:

So freedom from doesn't include freedom from DRM?

Of course you are free from DRM. Just don't buy/install content that is restricted by DRM.

Unfortunately the DMCA and its international clones prohibit me
from accessing DRM except by methods provided by the content owner.

Yeah. That is _their_ freedom in action. They are perfectly free to be as stupid as they want.

I am not free to use my own implementation through reverse
engineering, etc..

Think of the DRM as part of their packaging. You aren't free to dictate to them (thus limiting their freedom) that they have to ship to you in green-qualified, 100% recycled, non-climate-harming bubble- wrap either.

Don't re-implement DRM, just find the loopholes in it and use them. Or exercise your freedom to choose another content vendor and tell the DRM people about it in excruciating detail. Whining about DRM is both unsavory and unsatisfying.

You aren't free to ignore the consequences of attempting to ignore the law of gravity. Whose "fault" is that?

Lee Winter
Nashua, New Hampshire (Live Free or Die)
United States of America

If packaging prevents me from using a product for a purpose that I am legally entitled to use it for then I have a right to demand that the packaging be changed.

Correct. Andyou can demand that all day long from the content providers who use DRM. But your demands are just that: requests. Noeither you nor anyone else has the authority to _force_ them to accept andcomply with your demands.

More importantly, you are not legally entitled to use the product in ways other than the provider permits. Like Micros~1, they can require that you hold your mouth a certain way. Facing that requirement you are not free to violate it. You are free to choose a different product (despite Ballmer's insistence otherwise).

DRM prevents not just my use on platforms that they don't support but also to make fair use of the product.

It does limit the portability of the product. That's the provider's problem. You are not free to solve that problem for them.

It does not limit fair use. The term "fair use" has a technical definition in copyright law that provides an exception to the requirement for permission from the publisher. That discussion is way beyond the scope of this one. And that discussion is irrelevant to this one I think.

Lee Winter

Nashua, New Hampshire (Live Free or Die)

United States of America

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