It’s all about going after users and restiction of usage models, my take on the Crapple iPad

The Free Software Foundation and the DRM elimination Crew from Defective By Design had a bit of fun today at the Apple event at the Moscone Center in San Fransico today. And the hub-bub was all about the newest tool in Apple’s arsenal against its users the iPad

No not that iPad, this iPad

Here is how it went down:

dbd: This is a test of the #Apple restriction warning system. !dbd
01/27/2010 02:07 AM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 07:07:44 UTC

dbd: Live from the Apple announcement: Gathering outside Moscone entrance by Yerba Buena pillar and drive-thru !dbd !fsf !gnu
01/27/2010 11:34 AM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 16:34:46 UTC

dbd: http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/apple/apple-live-1.jpg !dbd
01/27/2010 11:53 AM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 16:53:47 UTC

dbd: Live at the Apple event: Just talked to Current TV. Out walking handing out flyers. !dbd
01/27/2010 12:13 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:13:55 UTC

dbd: http://imgur.com/0wpvY.jpg !dbd
01/27/2010 12:25 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:25:38 UTC

dbd: !gnu !fsf members — join !dbd for live coverage of the Apple DRM product launch
01/27/2010 12:26 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:26:14 UTC

dbd: !dbd !fsf !gnu — link to http://live.defectivebydesign.org on your blogs with this handy button – http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/apple/sp.png
01/27/2010 12:30 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:30:14 UTC

dbd: Live from the Apple event: Apple told police to keep an eye on us. Guess they’re afraid people might hear! !dbd !fsf
01/27/2010 12:36 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:36:48 UTC

dbd: http://imgur.com/nUtZK.jpg — Fake Fake Steve Jobs? !dbd !gnu !fsf
01/27/2010 12:44 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:44:21 UTC

dbd: RT @len http://imgur.com/nUtZK.jpg — Fake Fake Steve Jobs? !dbd !gnu !fsf (via @dbd)
01/27/2010 12:48 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:48:17 UTC

dbd: RT @crispassinato Crispassinato rbonifaz: ♺ @dbd: !dbd !fsf !gnu — link to http://ur1.ca/ktlt on your blogs with th.. http://bit.ly/cjgumz
01/27/2010 12:48 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:48:20 UTC

dbd: RT @rbonifaz ♺ @dbd: !dbd !fsf !gnu — link to http://ur1.ca/ktlt on your blogs with this handy button – http://ur1.ca/ktlu
01/27/2010 12:48 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:48:22 UTC

dbd: RT @gabrielsaldana RT @dbd: http://imgur.com/0wpvY.jpg #drm
01/27/2010 12:48 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:48:24 UTC

dbd: !dbd inside — http://ur1.ca/ktne outside — http://imgur.com/fj1I4.jpg
01/27/2010 12:53 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:53:37 UTC

dbd: Talking to a lot of media — getting the word out as people move inside. !dbd
01/27/2010 12:56 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:56:50 UTC

dbd: !dbd People are very afraid of Apple becoming Big Brother.
01/27/2010 12:57 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 17:57:23 UTC

dbd: !dbd more photos — http://imgur.com/hYg0W.jpg and http://i.imgur.com/iL2vT.jpg
01/27/2010 01:01 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 18:01:23 UTC

dbd: !dbd — Apple: 250 million DRM devices sold so far.
01/27/2010 01:07 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 18:07:47 UTC

dbd: !dbd — it’s official. The iPad — complete with App Store.
01/27/2010 01:13 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 18:13:00 UTC

dbd: http://imgur.com/pnrVt.jpg !dbd
01/27/2010 01:16 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 18:16:57 UTC

dbd: !dbd http://imgur.com/xUAbT.jpg
01/27/2010 01:17 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 18:17:10 UTC

dbd: !dbd http://imgur.com/3tSie.jpg
01/27/2010 01:17 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 18:17:23 UTC

dbd: !dbd http://imgur.com/r9UR8.jpg
01/27/2010 01:17 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 18:17:32 UTC

dbd: “We think it’s going to be a gold rush for developers” – the App Store is loaded on the iPad — DRM applications only? We’ll see !dbd
01/27/2010 01:39 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 18:39:17 UTC

dbd: !dbd http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/27/defective_by_design/
01/27/2010 01:44 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 18:44:44 UTC

dbd: Apple’s alternative to the Kindle — iBooks — how likely is DRM? very likely! !dbd
01/27/2010 01:54 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 18:54:46 UTC

dbd: iBooks is a partnership with Amazon. !dbd
01/27/2010 01:55 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 18:55:51 UTC

dbd: !dbd iBooks will use ePub — how likely is DRM? Many ePub companies use DRM already…
01/27/2010 02:00 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 19:00:14 UTC

dbd: Apple say they want to be at the “intersection of technology and liberal arts.” It’s not an intersection when one controls the other. #ipad
01/27/2010 02:44 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 19:44:47 UTC

dbd: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/auxkj/ !dbd
01/27/2010 04:33 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 21:33:33 UTC

dbd: !dbd http://www.reddit.com/r/gnu/comments/auxiq
01/27/2010 04:33 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 21:33:45 UTC

dbd: Ars Technica coverage: http://ur1.ca/kufm !dbd !fsf
01/27/2010 06:15 PM
dbd’s status on Wednesday, 27-Jan-10 23:15:16 UTC

After this point the game was pretty much over there was some great coverage in there and some awesome pics. It looks like it was a success, but there is still work to do. Here’s how you can help.

sign the petition: http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ipad
read the guide: “A guide to DRM free living” http://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide
know thine enemy: http://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm
and join the cause: http://www.defectivebydesign.org/user/register & http://www.defectivebydesign.org/shareipad

Adobe Pushes DRM for Flash

I’m sooo upset by this right now that I can’t think, I’ll update this post as soon as I calm down…

**edit** because of the text posted below I have uninstalled flash, I have installed gnash insted. I know that gnash isn’t going to do me much good, but I am hoping that it will get to the point where I can get buttons and things like that work. I am still royally pissed, and am boycotting all adobe products.

also there is a great comment on my blog (threethirty.us/2008/02/adobe-pushes-drm-for-flash.html)**edit**

Posted to eff.org’s DeepLinks by Seth Schoen

The immense popularity of sites like YouTube has unexpectedly turned Flash Video (FLV) into one of the de facto standards for Internet video. The proliferation of sites using FLV has been a boon for remix culture, as creators made their own versions of posted videos. And thus far there has been no widespread DRM standard for Flash or Flash Video formats; indeed, most sites that use these formats simply serve standalone, unencrypted files via ordinary web servers.

Now Adobe, which controls Flash and Flash Video, is trying to change that with the introduction of DRM restrictions in version 9 of its Flash Player and version 3 of its Flash Media Server software. Instead of an ordinary web download, these programs can use a proprietary, secret Adobe protocol to talk to each other, encrypting the communication and locking out non-Adobe software players and video tools. We imagine that Adobe has no illusions that this will stop copyright infringement — any more than dozens of other DRM systems have done so — but the introduction of encryption does give Adobe and its customers a powerful new legal weapon against competitors and ordinary users through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Recall that the DMCA sets out a blanket ban on tools that help “circumvent” any DRM system (as well as the act of circumvention itself). When Flash Video files are simply hosted on a web site with no encryption, it’s unlikely that tools to download, edit, or remix them are illegal. But when encryption enters the picture, entertainment companies argue that fair use is no excuse; Adobe, or customers using Flash Media Server 3, can try to shut down users who break the encryption without having to prove that the users are doing anything copyright-infringing. Even if users aren’t targeted directly, technology developers may be threatened and the technologies the users need driven underground.

Users may also have to upgrade their Flash Player software (and open source alternatives like Gnash, which has been making rapid progress, may be unable to play the encrypted streams at all). Third-party software that can download Flash Video, like the most recent RealPlayer, will also break. But Adobe now has an incentive to push the use of DRM: it’s only available to sites that use Flash Media Server 3 software, which starts at over $4,000 (with extra fees depending on the number of simultaneous streams).

Furthermore, the prospect of widespread adoption of DRM restrictions on Flash threatens to squash a growing tradition of expressive fair use of online video — a practice effectively in its infancy that, left unfettered, would be a dynamic solution to our failing effort to teach media literacy. Before we understand how to read media messages, we must first learn how to speak their language — and we learn that language by playing with and remixing the efforts of others. DRM, by restricting the remixing of Flash videos, stands to bankrupt a rich store of educational value by foreclosing the ability of students and teachers to “echo others” by remixing videos posted online.

Take the example of “A Vision of Students Today” vs. “(Re)Visions of Students Today”. The first “Vision” YouTube video is an artful critique of higher education’s failure to come up with new models of instruction that engage the modern student; the second “(Re)Vision” YouTube video is an incisive observation of higher education’s crisis in diversity (summarily expressed by the lack of diversity in the original “Vision” video). The original and the remix support each other to instruct with an influence above and beyond the power of either video alone.

Outside the halls of academia, we can see that the ability to openly download and remix video is part of a new ecosystem of amateur entertainment — watch Drama Prairie Dog and its countless responses:

* “Dramatic Prairie Dog vs. Kung Fu Baby (Best Remix Ever)”
* “Hollywood Zombies Dramatic Prarire Dog”
* “Dramatic Look Bond Remix”
* Drama Prairie Dog – Zoolander
* “Drama Prairie Dog — Kill Bill”
* (an obligatory Star Wars-related remix) “Darthmatic Chipmunk”

As we noted above, remixers who find and use tools that break the Flash Video encryption could be sued, even if their transformative creations would otherwise have been fair use.

Finally, there’s a classic suite of arguments against DRM that will be as true for online video as they were for music. DRM doesn’t move additional product. DRM is grief for honest end-users. And there’s no reason to imagine that new DRM systems will stop copyright infringement any more effectively than previous systems.