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

On Fri, 2013-06-21 at 07:56 -0700, Mark Watson wrote:
> 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 ?

Certainly the legal issues are not black-and-white in a worldwide scale.
That's why we shouldn't support DRM-based technical solutions that are
clearly on the black side of the spectrum and disregard any shades of
gray on consumers rights.

Received on Monday, 24 June 2013 17:35:19 UTC