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posted by mattie_p on Tuesday February 18 2014, @02:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the if-you-can't-beat-'em dept.

An anonymous coward writes:

"In March, 2013 Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, proposed adopting DRM into the HTML standard, under the name Encrypted Media Extensions (EME). Writing in October 2013, he said that "none of us as users like certain forms of content protection such as DRM at all," but cites the argument that "if content protection of some kind has to be used for videos, it is better for it to be discussed in the open at W3C" as a reason for considering the inclusion of DRM in HTML.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has objected, saying in May of last year that the plan 'defines a new "black box" for the entertainment industry, fenced off from control by the browser and end-user'. Later, they pointed out that if DRM is OK for video content, that same principle would open the door to font, web applications, and other data being locked away from users.

public-restrictedmedia, the mailing list where the issue is being debated, has seen discussion about forking HTML and establishing a new standard outside of the W3C."

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by dmc on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:08AM

    by dmc (188) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:08AM (#1334)

    "
    Figure out how to do DRM in a way that's transparent, works for all platforms, and which never, ever gets in my way.

    Maybe, just maybe, the best way to do that is within the HTML standard?
    "

    For those of us that believe in the value of educational and artistic fair use, having to get permission from the keyholders first seems like an awefully big 'getting in the way'. As soon as someone with a politically dissenting view has to ask permission to sample and quote a work to criticize it, it opens them up to persecution by monied interests that would rather have their voice excluded from the public debate. And that is not to mention what free-speech hating regimes such as China and Russia would do with the technology.

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  • (Score: 1) by dmc on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:58AM

    by dmc (188) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:58AM (#1379)

    "And that is not to mention what free-speech hating regimes such as China and Russia would do with the technology."

    And I'll be the first to remind myself that the U.S.A. is hardly without sin when it comes to interfering with people's 'inalienable' right to free speech. And if it makes you feel any better s/China and Russia/a future U.S. that believes reporting on the history of the Snowden revelations is a continuing threat to national security/