Meme

'If consumers even know there's a DRM, what it is, and how it works, we've already failed'

Peter Lee, an executive at Disney

I've talked about memes on this blog before. One of them was about the use of memes on Planet Debian (an usual thing there), and how Planets can help the Open Source world. Another time it was a meme with my top ten unix shell commands. But those were not the only ones... Anyway, some memes are just that "units of information", while others are themed (like the top ten commands one), some are presented (I just write the meme and who wants follows the trend) while others are requested (you're asked to follow a meme chain, and when you do it you nominate others to do the same).

Paula just told me to follow a meme (post in Portuguese), and I decided to reply with that quote of a Disney executive simply claiming that DRM er... sucks. I chose this theme since it is about something I blog a lot about, and I chose this quote since it is not only from a DRM adopter but also telling that DRM is bad. A quote both shocking and amusing, unfortunately not as widespread as it should be. On the choice of people to reply to this post, I'll only choose people that blog in English (so readers of this blog can go fetch the replies) and that the chance of replying is big (I hope).

So, the call goes out to André Ribeirinho, Hugo Silva and Nuno Mariz. The choice was made in a simple way: I fetched three bloggers from this Planet that blog in English and that, while I don't know them IRL, their blogs make me curious about them.

Say No to DRM+Disney+Gonzales

On Friday May 25th, around the world and at a theater near you, Disney launch "Pirates of the Caribbean, at World's End". It's time to head to your local theater and help in educating the movie going public to what Disney, Hollywood, MPAA, AACSLA, HD-DVD, illegal hex codes, and disgraced US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, all have in common. Get your friends together, get the suits, and join the fun.

Buy your own DRM Elimination Crew Suit for $5 now!

Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End, is a movie about a diverse community coming together to fight the far reaching and oppressive East India Trading Company to preserve their freedom loving lifestyle (sound kind of familiar?)

Do you like to get creative editing video? How about adapting the Pirates of the Caribbean movie trailer, that you can find on most video sharing sites, to tell the real story about DRM? Send us a link to your effort and we will highlight it on DefectiveByDesign.org - with prizes for the best.

Get started now! Contact your friends and place your order for DRM Elimination Crew suits to ensure that they arrive on time. We've gotten the price down to just $5 a suit, so order a few and get your Crew together for the 25th.

Background:

On Monday, US Attorney General Gonzales called on Congress to enact a sweeping new bill entitled the "Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007" (IPPA) that would amongst other things:

• Increase penalties for circumventing a DRM scheme
• Criminalize "attempting" to infringe copyright
• Permit more wiretaps for investigating copyright violations
• Add penalties for "intended" copyright crimes

This proposed legislation is a result of Hollywood's lobbying, serving their special interests at the expense of the public good. As we have seen, thanks to the recent events like the Digg revolt, the public have turned against DRM. The illegal hex code that can be used to remove the DRM from HD-DVD can now be found on over a million web pages. But this isn't deterring Hollywood yet.

Hollywood are attempting to scare us all into accepting DRM. Now is the time to take action!

As you know, Disney is a leading supporter of DRM in video and movies and a proponent of the permanent extension of copyright, sometimes called the "Mickey Mouse Act". Disney is founding members of AACSLA, the organization that license the HD-DVD DRM scheme. They are a driving force behind the MPAA and one of the main instigators of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) - that makes circumventing a DRM scheme a crime.

Join with DefectiveByDesign.org members around the world to send a message to Hollywood and Disney at the opening of Pirates of the Caribbean.

It's easy: get a few friends together, order some DRM Elimination Crew Packs, check your local listings and go have some fun at the worldwide launch! Together we'll explain to movie goers what DRM is, why it is bad, and how we can secure a future without DRM. Take some pictures and post them to Flickr where we can draw attention to them. Or take some video and share it with us, or through a video sharing site. Have fun and be creative.

If you're in Portugal, you might be interested in joining the Portuguese contestation!

Apple Jobs ISN'T Anti-DRM

OK, now the discussion can finaly come to an end. I'm connected via GPRS so I don't feel like talking much about this issue with such a connection, but PCWorld is reporting that Steve Jobs thinks DRM in Movies makes sense. Maybe now, with this, can we please stop talk about Jobs as "the saviour against the DRM battle"? Thank you.