Today is officially Day Against DRM and it’s a good thing too. Many times I feel the worst tragedies in human history were complacently faded into without a fight or really any one even noticing. Only then, when things get so horrible, do people finally stand up and say enough is enough. DRM or Digital Restrictions Management very well could end up as one of these. On the surface, it seems like a good idea, right? Protect the author. Let him get his due. Yada, yada, yada. The problem is that the former argument is just a straw man. DRM is much, much more than that. It is a purposeful attempt by people to control things they don’t have a right to control: what you do, when you do it, how you do it. For instance, do you have the right to watch a DVD you purchased? Of course you do. You purchased it. You can legally watch it as many times on as many devices as you want because you purchased it. The courts have shown this time and again. Period.
The next question then is, can you? And with DRM the answer is a resounding NO! You can only watch it in ways that the publisher has approved and can monitor even if you have the right to do otherwise. Even with DVDs you must decrypt (encryption is the first stage of DRM) the movie to watch it. Any attempt to decrypt the data from an unapproved, unlicensed device (most open source DVD decryptors) is illegal. This is because by purchasing it, you are implicitly agreeing to the publishers license agreement. Did you know that? Did you understand that? Does that make sense? I don’t think so.
This may all seem harmless at the moment, but the thing is that with each version you see more and more of our rights being taken away. Look no further than the progression from CDs (no DRM), to DVDs (encryption), to BluRay (massive DRM measures) to see this in action. The only way to ensure our rights in the future is to make sure there is no “rights management” to control.
The thing that always surprises me is that the church has traditionally been a champion of freedom. But as far as I can tell, the church is basically silent on many of these “freedom” topics whether open source software, creative commons or DRM. Why is that? Our speech is more and more being delivered through digital mediums. Those digital mediums are more and more being controlled, monitored, and restricted through DRM. So while you may not notice now, we are digging a huge hole for our future generations. We have a huge inheritance of freedom that we are squandering away for pretty computers and ease of use (yes, I’m talking to you Apple).
If you’ve been watching my tweets, you’ll remember to not think legally…lots of really horrible things are legal even today in the U.S. Instead, think ethically…what is really going on when corporations are not only allowed to do things like this, but that we as Christians support it by being silent and continuing to purchase their products. This is one of the main reasons I support and use open source because overall the open source movement supports freedom (especially of speech) in ways proprietary technologies including DRM never will. Support freedom. Don’t support DRM or companies pushing DRM technologies in their products.
The good news is that the companies are listening when you speak. There’s a reason that the iTunes store finally dropped DRM. If we keep supporting merchants that don’t use DRM we’ll continue to have freedom. These decisions are small, but powerful. For instance, I’ve continued to use Amazon MP3 store because it’s never supported DRM in it’s distribution model. Alternatives are out there. If you support them, they will continue to grow and get even better. But the decision is up to us…you and me doing what we believe is right as we continue to rethink ethics in a digital world.
![[FSF Associate Member]](http://opensourcechurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/fsfmember.png){kind=small}
Agreed in general.
I do understand (I think) where you are coming from and whilst I may agree and be with you I ask myself the question is it right (or wrong) that the church get involved with this type of choice?
That then begs the question of should the church get involved with politics – now there’s a can of worms. My personal opinion is no the church shouldn’t but the individuals of said church very much should.
So that decided it becomes clearer that I should get involved to the extent of my knowledge, ability, passions and most importantly vision. Is that the case for everyone – absolutely not. After all, you did say it’s an ethical issue and not a legal one you want us to think on.
Legally should I get involved or ethically should I get involved?
There are never any easy answers and I fear Free/OS or not, this one will run and run.
Actually, I don’t think I’m saying that you or anyone needs to be “involved” as far as I can tell. I’m saying that you should think about what you are supporting ethically when you make your purchasing decisions (not just in the area of software and media either…that’s just my focus topic for this blog). When you purchase DRM-based media or technology, you are supporting those companies willing to take away our freedom to make more money, that’s just a fact. If you want to support more freedom and less greed, all you have to do is think a little before you spend money on products or services from those companies and try to side with more open, free products and companies when possible (Amazon instead of iTunes, for instance). That’s it! It doesn’t seem very involving or hard to me. Many times it just involves not doing something, more than doing something too. For instance, I just choose not to upgrade to BluRay based media strictly on the ethical grounds that I don’t want to support their DRM policies. Add on the fact that it’s pretty expensive and I get the added benefit of saving quite a bit of money for my decision. Win-win!