Re: What change could we make? (was Re: Letter on DRM in HTML)

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 21, 2013, at 7:35 AM, Nikos Roussos
<comzeradd@mozilla-community.org> wrote:

> On Fri, 2013-06-21 at 02:42 -0400, Tim Berners-Lee wrote:
>> Nikos's statement "... EME [...] contradicts with Open Web principles"
>> is rousing but doesn't say which principles those are nor
>> how they are necessarily contradicted.
>>
>> One principle of the open web is "anyone can publish",
>> Can we design an EME system where that is true, and anyone can
>> publish content using it?
>
> Also "anyone can consume", regardless of "their hardware, software,
> network infrastructure (...)"
>
> So for start that's one principle of Open Web (and W3's own mission)
> that EME is contradicting, since it seems that it will require users to
> trust binary blobs from content providers in order to be functional.
>
> Another principle that DRM contradicts is that it disregards consumer
> rights. Quoting Norbert Bollow from a previous email: "rights that
> people have as a matter of law as soon as they have legal access to a
> digital good"

I am not a lawyer, so I am wary of stepping into an area in which I do
not have expertise, but just as a personal opinion and as a matter of
logic it seems the situation cannot be as black-and-white legally as
stated above. If so, there would surely be numerous legal challenges
to the widespread use of DRM. If it is indeed a 'right ... as a matter
of law' there should be cases upholding that right and striking down
the use of DRM. That's not to say there is no public interest in the
effectiveness of limitations on copyright, just that it is a balance
not a black-and-white thing. Did I miss something ? Or, are you
arguing that you believe this is clear, legally, but there isn't a
complete legal consensus on that ?

...Mark
>
>
> --
> Nikos Roussos
> http://roussos.cc
>
>
>
>

Received on Friday, 21 June 2013 14:57:12 UTC