[Fsuk-manchester] Fwd: He invented the Web. Would he give up on free standards?

[John Rooke]

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:        He invented the Web. Would he give up on free standards?
Date:   Thu, 10 Nov 2016 16:56:01 -0500
From:   Zak Rogoff, FSF <address@hidden>
Reply-To:       Zak Rogoff, FSF <address@hidden>
To:     John Rooke <address@hidden>



Free Software Foundation

Dear John Rooke,

What would timbl do?

The chief arbiter of Web standards, Tim Berners-Lee, has an important
choice to make this week. He must decide whether or not to allow media
and technology companies to add socially harmful Digital Restrictions
Management (DRM)
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management>
into the technical capabilities of the Web, with a proposal called
Encrypted Media Extensions <https://www.w3.org/TR/encrypted-media>
(EME). The companies are currently asking for Berners-Lee's seal of
approval to move EME to the next phase of standardization: a Proposed
Recommendation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) <https://www.w3.org>.

Twenty-five years ago, Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. Back
then timbl -- as he's known online -- declined opportunities to lock
down his creation and established himself as an advocate for a
freedom-affirming, interoperable, and universally accessible World Wide
Web. Now he's considering turning his back on this vision to make
Netflix, Google, Apple, and Microsoft happy.

*We have just days to convince Tim Berners-Lee to choose freedom for the
Web and block Encrypted Media Extensions from becoming an official
standard. Repeat the GNU social <https://status.fsf.org/notice/189277>
and Twitter
<https://mobile.twitter.com/endDRM/status/796475563204550656>¹ messages
from our anti-DRM campaign, asking Tim a simple question:
#WhatWouldTimblDo? Would the Web's once idealistic inventor really give
up on free standards?*

Not in to social media? You can also take action by sending in a selfie
against DRM in Web standards
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/selfie-against-drm-in-web-standards>
or signing our petition
<https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=183&reset=1>.


      Some background

Big media owners, like the movie studios represented by the MPAA
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/topic/mpaa> and the music labels
represented by the RIAA <https://www.defectivebydesign.org/topic/riaa>,
feel threatened by the sharing that digital technology enables. Since
the '90s, they've poured bottomless resources into locking down not just
the Web but physical devices as well. One of their favorite tools is DRM
-- digital handcuffs that limit what people can do with media.

These companies have never cared that DRM denies users the right to
control their computers, or that it causes huge collateral damage by
opening security holes
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/ten-years-after-sony-rootkit>,
restricting cultural creativity, and limiting accessibility for the
disabled <https://www.defectivebydesign.org/disabling-the-disabled>. In
fact, they've even had laws like the Digital Millenium Copyright Act
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/DMCA-exemptions-process-anti-circumvention>
passed, to give DRM special status that makes it illegal to circumvent.
More recently, companies that stream media, like Netflix and Google,
have forged distribution deals with media giants. These lucrative
relationships are an incentive to join the labels in their quest for
control.

In 2013 Berners-Lee surprised the world by allowing some of the
companies that use DRM -- namely Netflix, Apple, Google, and Microsoft
-- to start developing their latest project within the walls of the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the official Web standards organization
led by Berners-Lee. Their project, EME, is a universal DRM system for
the Web. The choice Berners-Lee faces now is whether or not to allow EME
to reach the "maturity level" of a Proposed W3C Recommendation,
indicating he feels it is ready to become an official standard and
passing it to the W3C's Advisory Committee for ratification.

This is the first time that Berners-Lee and the W3C have considered
including DRM in Web standards. Berners-Lee seems to be hoping that the
big media companies will accept EME and use it to make DRM cheaper and
easier for streaming video, then leave the free Web alone. But history
shows us the exact opposite. DRM has to keep spreading to new platforms
and formats to maintain control over users, and its owners have no
reason not to use their massive power and money to continue integrating
it into more elements of the Web. Indeed, there are murmurs about adding
DRM to text <http://idpf.org/epub-content-protection> and image
<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/10/theres-no-drm-jpeg-lets-keep-it-way>
standards, which would be energized by the ratification of EME. EME
foreshadows a future Web that is riddled with DRM, where the freedom and
transparency of the system (like viewing source HTML in a browser) will
be gradually phased out.


      We won't give up on the Web

Berners-Lee still has a chance to say no to EME and keep the W3C on the
right side of history. There is a real possibility that he might -- he's
recently weakened his support for EME
<https://defectivebydesign.org/blog/tim_bernerslee_just_gave_us_opening_stop_drm_web_standards>.
If he does reject it, he will be congratulated by the community of
technologists that work in the public interest -- figures like security
expert Bruce Schneier
<https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/01/fighting_drm_in.html>
and MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito
<https://boingboing.net/2016/03/13/joi-ito-on-drm-the-world-wide.html>
have been very clear that they want a Web without DRM, and more than
34,000 people sent the same message through petition signatures
<https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=183&reset=1>. All timbl
has to do is remember his original vision for the Web, and block EME
from moving forward through the W3C standards-setting process.

*Head to GNU social <https://status.fsf.org/notice/189277> or Twitter
<https://mobile.twitter.com/endDRM/status/796475563204550656>¹, and
remind Tim Berners-Lee of his original vision for the Web.*

¹: We recommend free software-based, decentralized microblogging
services like GNU Social and Pump.io over Twitter (read more
<https://www.fsf.org/twitter>).

Zak Rogoff
Campaigns Manager

/Read online:
https://defectivebydesign.org/blog/tim_bernerslee_created_sold_out_web/

Follow us on GNU social <https://status.fsf.org/fsf> | Subscribe to our
blogs via RSS <https://fsf.org/blogs/RSS> | Join us as an associate
member <https://www.fsf.org/jf>

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-- 
http://independent.academia.edu/JohnRooke

http://www.researchgate.net/profile/John_Rooke