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NYC LOCAL: Wednesday 6 May 2015 New York City Rally Against Digital Restrictions Management

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

Followups directed to: gnu.misc.discuss

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Time and Place:

  We will gather together
  to make the argument against Digital Restrictions Management
  at
  4:00 pm
  Wednesday 6 May 2015
  at the Apple Glass Cube
  on Fifth Avenue
  between 58th and 59th Streets
  on the Island of the Manahattoes

Subway Stops nearby:

  N and Q 59th Street stop
  4, 5, 6, and F 59th Street stop

Further Information:

  https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Defective_by_Design/Day_Against_DRM_2015

COME ON DOWN!

We also welcome those who are for DRM.  We Free Software Partisans
are famous for our parfit gentle courtesy, so prepare for serious
discussion.

Below find some propaganda written in 2002, and comments about the
present correlation of forces.

Distributed poC TINC:

Jay Sulzberger <secretary@lxny.org>
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org


  In 2002 the battle to keep our right to own a computer and to
  keep the Net was already joined.  Here is the text of a pamphlet
  from that time, and below is a paragraph about the situation
  today, that is, in 2015.


                            We are the stakeholders.

    Our stake is all the home and small business computers that we own and the
    free use we make of our computers.

    Today, many people have a personal computer at home.  Usually this computer
    is connected to the Internet, and is used to send and receive mail, to surf
    the Web, to listen to music, to find information, to do many things, and
    even, sometimes, to play movies.

    Today your home computer, the computer that you bought and paid for, is
    under your control.  Today no one is watching you when you use it.  No
    publisher, no secret police, no operating system company.  If you bought
    and paid for your computer, then in the privacy of your home you may do all
    these things:

    1. You may buy a copy of a movie recorded on DVD.  You may watch this movie
        whenever you please.  You may make copies of this movie, some of which
        may be exact copies, others of which may be variant copies.

    2. You may buy a copy of music recorded on CD or DVD.  You may play this
        music whenever you please.  You may make copies of this music, some of
        which may be exact copies, others of which may be variant copies.

    3. You may sample and fuse and intermix many different strands of movie and
        music and text.  You may play what you have made at private parties in
        your house.

    4. You may have a personal web page whose content you create using your
        computer.  You may manage your website using whatever tools you please.

    5. You may install an operating system different from the one the computer
        came with.  This operating system might be one you downloaded off the
        net.  You may use this operating system to connect to the Net, and you
        may freely send your work to others on the Net, as they can send their
        stuff to you.  If the system is a GNU/Linux or free BSD system, you may
        look at all the source code of this operating system.  If you can
        program, you may modify the operating system by rewriting parts of it,
        or adding to it, or removing parts of it.  If you choose, you may share
        your work with others by placing copies of your code on a website, or by
        emailing copies to other people.  In turn, other people may modify your
        work.  Groups of programmers and users may freely work together to
        improve certain programs, or to learn about computers, or even just to
        make art.

    6. Without asking permission of anyone, you may modify the hardware of your
        computer, and you may sell the resulting modified computer.


    Note: Today part of the legal infrastructure for DRM is already in place.
    In 1998 a law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed by the
    Congress of the United States and signed into law.  The DMCA makes illegal
    some acts falling under 1 through 6 above.  But so far, in practice, the
    great majority of people in the world today may do everything in 1 to 6
    without fear of suits at law nor fear of criminal prosecution.  A few
    people and companies have been sued or prosecuted under the DMCA for doing
    things that before passage of the DMCA were not only reasonable to do, but
    legal as well.  For what full enforcement of DMCA would do see the note

    http://www.panix.com/~jays/why.the.dmca.must.be.repealed


    Here is our position as stakeholders today:

    Today, once we have bought a computer, we are the full owners of that
    computer.  We may freely use it in the privacy of our house to do many
    things, some listed above.  We may also freely use the Net to send our
    works privately to others, and also to openly publish our works.  We may
    use our computers and we may use the Net for our own personal objectives,
    and for our business purposes.  And businesses may use their computers and
    the Net for their partly public and partly private purposes.


    DRM is theft.

    The first question we must answer is "What is DRM?".  DRM is the legal,
    contractual, economic, hardware, and software infrastructure designed and
    intended by a loose alliance of cartels and monopolies to take away your
    right to own and privately use a computer.  No full DRM exists in the world
    today, though pieces of DRM have been successfully enacted into law and
    tiny bits of DRM hardware and software have been placed in some home movie
    playing and recording devices.  Every single piece of DRM is meant to help
    attain the objective of the anti-ownership alliance: to get control of
    every personal computer in the world.

    In a world under DRM, what becomes of the six freedoms we today enjoy?

    1. You may still buy a copy of a movie recorded on DVD.  But there will be
        far fewer movies available on DVD.  You may not watch a movie on DVD
        whenever you please, at least not without paying a fee every time you
        watch.  The movie may expire and you may have to buy another copy.  You
        may not make any copies of this movie.

    2. You may still buy a copy of music recorded on CD or DVD.  But there will
        be far less music available on CD or DVD.  You may not play this
        music whenever you please, at least not without paying a fee every time
        you listen.  The music may expire and you may have to buy another copy.
        You may not make any copies of this music.

    3. You may not sample and fuse and intermix many different strands of movie
        and music and text.  Since you will not be able to make mixes, you will
        not be able to play mixes at private parties in your house.

    4. You must get a license to have a personal web page whose content you
        create using your computer.  You must get a special license to create
        music or movies.  You may not manage your website using what tools you
        please, but are required to use only tools you have a license for.

    5. You may not install an operating system different from the one the
        computer came with.  Installing a different operating system is a
        felony.  No operating system is freely available on the Net.  You may
        use only the operating system that came installed on the computer to
        connect to the Net.  Use of any other operating system to connect to the
        Net is a felony.  Possession of a GNU/Linux or free BSD system is a
        felony.  All operating systems must be licensed by a joint
        government-cartel-monopoly licensing body.  You may not look at the
        source code of any licensed operating system.  You may not modify the
        operating system in any way.  You are not allowed to distribute by any
        means any unlicensed program.

    6. Modification of the hardware of any personal computer is a felony,
        unless you do so as an employee of a cartel member or monopoly member of
        the DRM alliance.  Distribution of modified hardware is an even more
        serious offense under DRM law.

    Further, under the proposed DRM system Palladium, every Palladiated
    computer will always remain under the direct control of the anti-ownership
    alliance.  You will no longer control the machine you paid for and have in
    your house.

    DRM is theft.  And it is theft on a grand scale.  About one billion
    personal computers have been sold over the past twenty years.  The DRM
    alliance proposes to take the next billion computers, and the billions after
    that, away from us.

    New Yorkers for Fair Use
    http://www.nyfairuse.org


  The present situation is more perilous.  The Englobulators are
  close to outlawing private ownership of computers and close to
  grabbing our Net and substituting something they call "the
  Net", but which is in fact an "improved" form of Cable TV.  One
  of the Englobulator's improvements would be an even more
  powerful system of wiretapping.

  Today, in 2015, most "personal computers" are hand held and have
  a wireless connection to the telephone service.  Such devices are
  called "smart phones".  Almost all of them are *not* owned by the
  people who carry them.  Rather they are controlled by Apple, or
  Google, or Microsoft, and their partners.  There are several
  excuses offered by Apple et al for keeping control of these
  devices.  The supposed necessity of DRM to suppress copyright
  infringement is one big excuse.  At the New York City Day Against
  DRM on Wednesday 6 May 2015 we will examine the present
  situation, and discuss what can be done to keep our right to own
  a computer and what can be done to keep our Net free.

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NYC LOCAL: Wednesday 6 May 2015 New York City Rally Against Digital Restrictions Management secretary@lxny.org - 2015-05-03 20:18 -0400

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