By arfore | Published: July 26, 2008
So there is a nice report on cnet about an human denial of service attack on the Apple Retail Store Genius Bars.
According to this story, and the FSF site DefectiveByDesign, the goal is to book as many 10-minute time slots as possible over a two-day period at the Apple Store in a lame attempt to bring more attention to what the FSF sees as the defective nature of the iPhone 3G.
Richard Stallman, the founder of the FSF, has stated:
The motive for DRM schemes is to increase profits for those who impose them, but their profit is a side issue when millions of people’s freedom is at stake; desire for profit, though not wrong in itself, cannot justify denying the public control over its technology. Defending freedom means thwarting DRM.
He also describes DRM as Digital Restrictions Management:
However, since its purpose is to restrict you the user, it is more accurate to describe DRM as Digital Restrictions Management.
If Stallman’s purpose is to be obstructionist and unhelpful then he and his campaign has succeeded.
While it is laudable for Stallman and his FSF pals to despise DRM, it is definitely not laudable for him to block well meaning customers from receiving customer support by the vendor of a product they have purchased or use.
As for his whole campaign against DRM, I think that he is barking up the wrong tree. If he really wants to eliminate the completely legal restrictions against the usage of DRM files on his favorite platform, then maybe he needs to work on changing the law.
It’s fine and good for him to characterize the anti-piracy claims as being propaganda by the media companies, but if people weren’t stealing the movies and music, then there wouldn’t be a need for the DRM. I know plenty of people that download illegal copies of music, movies and television shows. That means that no money is going to the artists, actors, and producers for those copies that are stolen. And while I don’t agree on the statistics that the media companies are touting when it comes to the stolen media, I do agree that these thefts are making it more expensive to abide by the law.
As for not having a legal player on the free software platforms, maybe if the GNU and Linux crowd weren’t quite so rabidly against paying for software then there might be some incentive for a developer to license the codecs from Microsoft and Apple. If these companies are as greedy as Stallman claims then it is doubtful that they would pass up the chance to have yet another market for their products. I know that I would personally pay for the ability to legally play all of my iTunes Music Store purchases on a Linux-based media center computer.
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