Re: The subject line is irrelevant these days

On Oct 22, 2013, at 14:38 , Duncan Bayne <dhgbayne@fastmail.fm> wrote:

>> By the way 'the open web' means generally the content that is linked into
>> and accessible on the public internet, in contrast to the use of the same
>> technologies used in internal (closed) networks or in other controlled
>> environments (e.g. web offerings from an ISP to only its customers, and
>> so on).
> 
> I would say that DRM restricted content clearly falls into the category
> of "other controlled environments."  How is "from an ISP to only its
> customers" different to, say, "to people running a specified operating
> system, browser and proprietary binary blob"?

Because it's linked from the open web, and unlike (for example) the internal network of a corporation, is accessible to anyone. They may not wish to pay, they may not wish to use the tools needed, of course, but those are *their* choices.

>> 27.2 "Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material
>> interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production
>> of which he is the author."
>> 
>> Some of those making artistic production are unable to see how to protect
>> their material interests from people who think that, because it is easily
>> copied, all digital information is and ought to be free -- unless they
>> protect that content.
> 
> And that's perfectly fair; those people are free to pursue whatever DRM
> technologies they like.  I'm not arguing against their right to do so. 
> I have in fact written a commercial DRM system for Windows software.
> 
> All I'm saying - and 27.2 above is irrelevant to this - that the W3C is
> not the place for DRM.
> 
>> and on the other side?  That 'my preference' for open-source software
>> should trump all other concerns and desires, for a start.
> 
> Free, not open-source.  There is a difference.  But that's still
> irrelevant to the discussion.


Well, it seems to be the major objection; it underlies your definition of 'open', doesn't it?

My company just announced a free operating system (OS X Mavericks).  I rather thought that it doesn't meet your requirements -- that you want open-source, not free.  Am I wrong?

David Singer
Multimedia and Software Standards, Apple Inc.

Received on Tuesday, 22 October 2013 21:43:05 UTC