Read this consumer warning

["Linux Alchemist" <linux.alchemist@googlemail.com>]

Important Consumer Warning About DRM

Please read this consumer warning. This stuff really exists and you should know about it. Please also pass this onto anyone else who may not be aware of what DRM is.

Warning DRM! Digital Restrictions Management

This holiday season when you bring home a new electronic device, will you be bringing an intruder into your home? Will you and your family members end up being monitored and reported on by the software installed on these devices?

DRM is used to restrict what you and your family can do with the electronic devices and media purchased. It is an attempt by technology and media companies to take away your rights. DRM Means: No fair use. No purchase and resell. No private copies. No sharing. No backup. No swapping. No mix tapes. No privacy. No commons. No control over our computers. No control over our electronic devices.

DRM software and hardware monitors and controls your family's behavior.

Did you know that iPod users are restricted from transferring their music to other non-Apple devices because the music downloaded from iTunes is encrypted - locked with DRM? Apple allows you to write an audio CD, but will leave you with very lousy sound quality if you ever want to take your music to a new portable device in a compressed format.

Did you know that Sony Music was caught secretly planting DRM "rootkits" on customers computers. All it required was for you to play the CD you had purchased from them...

DRM is more than a nuisance. The film and music industry are setting the agenda to increase their control. They have demanded that technology companies impose DRM to deliver for them what their political lobbying to change copyright law never has: they aim to turn every interaction with a published work into a transaction, abolishing fair use and the commons, and making copyright last forever. By accepting DRM users unwittingly surrender their rights and invite a deeper surveillance. This will put your family's viewing, listening, reading, browsing records on file with them.

What gives them that right?

Stay away from DRM-dependent products like Blu-ray and HD-DVD, iTunes, Windows Media Player, Zune, Amazon Unbox...

Stay away from retailers who insist on making DRM part of the package.

Stop financing the people who want to restrict you.

Find out more at www.DefectiveByDesign.org and find 10 easy ways you can help make others aware.

Thanks for reading.

Jonathan Gowar