[Fsuk-manchester] Anti-DRM Action: Fwd: Support the marchers fighting for digital rights!

[John Rooke]

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:        Support the marchers fighting for digital rights!
Date:   Fri, 12 May 2017 21:57:13 -0400
From:   Zak Rogoff, FSF <address@hidden>
Reply-To:       Zak Rogoff, FSF <address@hidden>
To:     John Rooke <address@hidden>



Free Software Foundation

Dear John Rooke,

This is the final showdown in the struggle to keep DRM (Digital
Restrictions Management)
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management>
out of Web standards. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, could
make a final decision any day now. If he chooses to let big media
corporations add DRM to Web standards, he compromises our security and
freedom. If he chooses to reject DRM, he affirms our belief in a Web
that puts users first.

This is where the small, artist-led group called Ethics in Tech comes
in. They contacted us about a march to Tim Berners-Lee's office they are
leading this Saturday (May 13) at 2:00 PM EDT, demanding he reject DRM
in Web standards. We appreciate their commitment to digital rights and
we feel it's incredibly important that everyone support them right now.

*Show your support for the marchers!*

  * If you use GNU social or Mastodon, repeat this message.
    <https://status.fsf.org/conversation/201984#notice-234612>
  * If you use Twitter, repeat this message.
    <https://twitter.com/fsf/status/862758132686225410> (See our
    comparison <https://www.fsf.org/share> of social media platforms.)
  * If you don't use either service, post elsewhere (feel free to use
    the image below), or make a call to Tim Berners-Lee.

<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/dialup_webs_inventor_online_security_and_rights>
  * If you live near Cambridge, MA, join the march!
    <https://libreplanet.org/wiki/EME_protest>

An image of a protester holding a sign that says 'Make Ethical Standards
or Stand on the Wrong Side of History.' The image is licensed CC BY
Ethics in Tech. Text to the left of the image reads 'This Saturday,
Boston locals march on Tim Berners-Lee's office demanding he say NO to
companies who want to undermine the freedom and security of the Web with
DRM. Repeat this if you support the marchers. More info: u.fsf.org/276.


  More information about the issue

The inventor of the Web is considering allowing corporate interests to
change its underlying technology, extending their ability to control
users' computers with DRM (Digital Restrictions Management)
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management>,
undermining Internet freedom, and exposing people to surveillance and
criminal threats online.

As Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee considers this decision, people around
the world are placing hundreds of phone calls
<https://defectivebydesign.org/blog/dialup_webs_inventor_online_security_and_rights>
urging him not to allow the change. Now a small artist-led group called
Ethics in Tech is taking it to the next level—this Saturday, they will
march to Berners-Lee's office in Cambridge, MA, to demand he heed the
call of human rights groups
<https://boingboing.net/2017/04/12/global-south-vs-drm.html>, tens of
thousands of Web users
<https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=183&reset=1>, and his
fellow Web pioneers
<http://pubpub.ito.com/pub/dmca-drm-aml-kyc-backdoors>: reject DRM in
Web standards and stand up for the free, fair Web that everyone except a
handful of big companies wants.

The proposed change to the Web takes the form of a draft technical
standard called EME (Encrypted Media Extensions)
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/drm-in-web-standards>, which
specifies a new way for DRM to integrate with the Web. Netflix, Apple,
Google, and Microsoft require users to run DRM software on their
computers to stream videos, and if Tim Berners-Lee uses his power as
director of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) <https://www.w3.org/> to
make EME an official Web standard, it will become cheaper and easier for
them to deploy massive DRM systems across browsers and devices.

This would invite more abuses of users like the Digital Editions DRM,
which was found to be exposing user information to snoopers
<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/10/adobe-spyware-reveals-again-price-drm-your-privacy-and-security>.
It would also increase the amount of media for which DRM prevents people
from doing important, legal actions, like accessibility modifications,
translation, commentary, and archiving.

Netflix, Apple, Google, and Microsoft are dead-set on EME. They are
powerful and their membership dues provide money to the W3C. But we
/can/ stop them if we show Tim Berners-Lee that the Web's users—whom
both he and EME's proponents ultimately rely on—will not tolerate a Web
that puts corporate interests above their own security and rights.

The march in Cambridge is not organized by Defective by Design or the
Free Software Foundation, but we strongly support its goals.

Zak Rogoff
Campaigns Manager

/Read more online:
https://defectivebydesign.org/blog/webs_inventor_flirts_disaster_boston_artists_are_putting_out_call_march_us_saturday./

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