Readers with good memories may recall a little kerfuffle over an Ofcom consultation to slap DRM on the BBC's HD service:
if this scheme is adopted it is highly unlikely free software projects will be able to obtain the appropriate keys, for the simple reason that they are not structured in a way that allows them to enter into the appropriate legal agreements (not least because they couldn't keep them). Of course, it will probably be pretty trivial for people to crack the encryption scheme, thus ensuring that the law-abiding free software users are penalised, while those prepared to break the law are hardly bothered at all.
On Open Enterprise blog.
It is the unnatural law of copyright that breaks the natural liberty of the people.
ReplyDeleteIgnoring the 18th century privilege of a reproduction monopoly (whether upon writings or designs) is not the breaking of a natural law. Moreover it is ethically imperative that it is ignored, in order to demonstrate against such unethical suspensions of our cultural and technological liberty, and ultimately for its restoration.