The FTC needs YOUR input in the War on DRM!

This is your chance to tell the government your opinion on DRM!

By Spartan on February 14, 2009 8:00:07 PM from

Well folks the FTC will be holding a policy meeting focused on DRM at the University of Washington Law School in the William H. Gates Hall (what irony) and the public's opinion is solicited. The government needs to hear from us the unwashed masses that have been getting shit on for nearly a decade with the blatant assfuckery, known as DRM, by the big media companies.

So please take the time to express yourself here. Sadly enough to date only 700 people have submitted comments. You can read them here.

Please tell all your friends to leave comments because if this events turns into a rubber stamp for the content companies then society will lose even more then we have already because of the DMCA and related IPR laws. This is the first time the public has really been able to express opinions directly about the issue to the government so please take advantage of it!

This story is being covered by ARS here and the original report is here.

+171 Karma | 14 Replies

Quoting myself:

I will be brief. A fundamental problem with the implementation of DRM is that it is done without the consumers' consent or awareness. No matter what type of DRM is utilized, the consumer must have that information available. Secret rootkits installed by privately owned companies with unlimited access to personal files - this is DRM today. DRM is a necessity in the fight against piracy. But it must not come at the expense of consumer privacy. The consumer must be made aware BY THE PRODUCER OR THE PUBLISHER of digital goods, what DRM will be utilized to ensure the legal / authorized use of the good. If the DRM information is available, then it becomes a consumer choice. If it is not, then DRM will remain a small step away from criminal acts of invading privacy. Software producers have had the opportunity to produce DRM that is commonly accepted. Some have failed. The DRM of today has grown so powerful, that admitting it is implemented in a digital good is simply no longer possible. Now legislation is needed, that demands that full information is easily available to the consumer regarding DRM in a good, to ensure that the companies stop tricking the consumers. How this is best implemented, I leave in the hands of better minds.

Hope you don't mind Spartan but I'm going to quote the entire OP just to make it easier to spread the word.

@Heavenfall - Thanks for your support!

@Tamren - go for it. You can take the spin out of it if you want and or make it more "G" oriented. The goal is to spread the word to as many communities as possible. I dont care if I get credit for anything; I always stay behind the scenes anyway. The results are the only thing that matters to me.

There aren't just 700. I think it only shows the first 700 submitted on that page you linked.

Hmmm... I could not find anymore and ARS has even published a story that only 700 comments where posted. Strange...

@Spartan, I'm affraid to say this but I don't think the people are gonna win this battle and if the goverment does make DRM required in all PC software than SD might not do so well in the future. It's sad to say but that's the likely situation cause only 700 people have made comments, makes me wonder if someone working for the Pro-DRM companies is trying to prevent more comments from being made.

Please don't get the government involved. Vote with your wallets instead.

There is without a doubt more than 700 entries, as my entry is listed amongst those and I posted after 700 were already listed.

Either that, or any additional comments push old ones out of the database. Unlikely, but not unthinkable.

OK. I submitted mine finally and submission number was pretty big. So who knows.

The quick and dirty comment is as follows. Note: it is 4:30AM here and I worked a very time today so it is likely badly worded.

DRM needs to be clearly outlawed. It steps all over the First-sale doctrine and acts as a big brother holding every customer -yes customer not consumer nor subscriber, hostage to the media companies whims and balance sheets.

How many DRM systems have been implemented then abandoned when they were no longer a profitable venture or no longer worked for the company strategic plan? Nearly a dozen if memory serves. Guess what happened to the customers who "purchased" those products? They got ripped off - nay stolen from in my opinion when the product they thought they purchased stopped working! DRM is just plain wrong.

We have police to enforce the laws of the land, companies should not be allowed to assume even a degree of the role of such agencies since such a system is a serious conflict of interest on so many levels as well as a slippery slop as we have already seen.

For example, if you want proof of this, just look at the RIAA after assuming the copyright "enforcement" role and how it has twisted the civil courts - not criminal ones (which is where any such action should take place first in my opinion) via the law into a ten ton hammer to wield over the populous. Yet DRM on music is pretty much dead now and oddly enough to the amazement of the RIAA DRM free music sales are setting record levels year on year! The rest of the media world should follow suit and very quickly.

There were many, many products I have not purchased over the past few years that I could have easily acquired but chose not to because of the Stalinistic DRM policy employed by the developers and publishers. Moreover when most customers try to complain about such things on official public forums they get shut down quickly by the companies. If DRM is so great and needed then why keep it covered in such secrecy? The answer is simple. It is because the people doing it know it is inherently wrong or they are using it for other purposes.

There are many other issues such as privacy, black lists, damage to hardware and other software -etc... that I have not even touch on yet to also consider and of course when one looks at all of it, the baggage that comes with DRM, one can only conclude that it is a bad thing for everyone and the more draconian it becomes the more the public will rebel. In short, stop DRM here. Stop DRM now!

It does not do what it is publically claimed to do but it does have many other nefarious profit driven uses. Simply put DRM does not serve the public interest one iota.

In the next day or so I will be sending notices to several dozen media outlets hopefully I can get a lot attention going in the next few news cycles. Help from others would be greatly appreciated to spread the word.

If you look at the final number in the comment ID on the page you linked, all of them are 1-700, so it only shows to first 700...

With the most popular machines being the x86/x64 platform, DRM is currently unworkable, as it cannot effectively hide code and data sufficiently from other software. Even encryption cannot effectively protect content, as the decryption algorithm must expose itself in memory during decryption of the content. Rootkits and virtual machines can bypass OS memory restrictions. With hardware modifications, it may be theoretically possible to hide data in a way that virtual machines and rootkits cannot bypass, but it is currently not possible with the current x86/x64 platform.

I don't have the courage to send a comment . . . but frankly, that's the truth of current DRM. Even ignoring all of the social, ethical, and legal issues, DRM is by nature an ineffective technological measure without hardware modifications.

The problem is that all comments posted after February 13, 2009 will probably be ignored.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention though. It will be interesting to see the fallout, if any, from the workshop.

They should not be methinks. There are several weeks until the meeting yet.

The problem is that all comments posted after February 13, 2009 will probably be ignored

Well if you read what have been written here http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/drm/index.shtml

Interested parties may submit written comments or original research until February 13, 2009.

There is also a due date set to February 13, 2009 on the submitting comment page ....

The Forums Are Now Closed!

The content will remain as a historical reference, thank you.

The FTC needs YOUR input in the War on DRM!

This is your chance to tell the government your opinion on DRM!