Re: Mozilla blog: DRM and the Challenge of Serving Users

On May 16, 2014, at 10:39 , Gervase Markham <gerv@mozilla.org> wrote:

>> To those of us that are against DRM the absence of DRM support is a positive 
>> bullet point, a competitive advantage, a feature, not the opposite. 
> 
> If you were a significant proportion of the world's population, I'm sure
> things would look very different.

Indeed, that a product is capable of doing something does not mean you have to use it. A feature of a product that is irrelevant to you does not make it less of a feature, and certainly an alternative product in which the feature is not present does not mean that that absence is, in itself, a feature.  I am sure that there are things that can be done with ordinary kitchen knives that I would disapprove of.  I simply choose not to do them; I don’t hobble myself by not buying knives.

Also, you have heard this before, but it’s worth saying now.  Mozilla might not be in this position if there were a viable alternative for content owners.  And, before you start, viable means something that they are willing to adopt, not something someone else proclaims is viable. We have heard a great deal of criticism and wishful thinking, but very little proposal or creative thinking, and it’s not been a good use of our time.

David Singer
Manager, Software Standards, Apple Inc.

Received on Friday, 16 May 2014 09:49:28 UTC