Month: April 2013

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Snooper’s Charter is dead! (for now)

Aw, yeah! The UK Communications Data Bill — AKA the “Snooper’s Charter,” a sweeping, totalitarian universal Internet surveillance bill that the Conservative government had sworn to pass — is dead! Yesterday, Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Parliament, announced that his party would not support the bill, and effectively killed it. Though I’ve been bitterly disappointed with some of the terminal compromises the LibDems have made, this makes me grateful to have them in Parliament. The kind of universal surveillance proposed in the Snooper’s Charter was broadly supported by the last Labour government, which radically expanded state surveillance powers, and by the Tories — thank goodness for the LibDems mustering a scrap of backbone at last!

The only downside is that the Open Rights Group had a whole series of great “Professor Elemental” videos that used pointed, excellent humour to mock and undermine the bill and drum up opposition to it, and now that’s all going to go to waste (I blogged episode one yesterday).

Aw, who’m I kidding? This kind of thing never stays dead.

The snooper’s charter has reminded Nick Clegg, finally, he is a liberal

    

Posted on

Snooper's Charter is dead! (for now)

Aw, yeah! The UK Communications Data Bill — AKA the “Snooper’s Charter,” a sweeping, totalitarian universal Internet surveillance bill that the Conservative government had sworn to pass — is dead! Yesterday, Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Parliament, announced that his party would not support the bill, and effectively killed it. Though I’ve been bitterly disappointed with some of the terminal compromises the LibDems have made, this makes me grateful to have them in Parliament. The kind of universal surveillance proposed in the Snooper’s Charter was broadly supported by the last Labour government, which radically expanded state surveillance powers, and by the Tories — thank goodness for the LibDems mustering a scrap of backbone at last!

The only downside is that the Open Rights Group had a whole series of great “Professor Elemental” videos that used pointed, excellent humour to mock and undermine the bill and drum up opposition to it, and now that’s all going to go to waste (I blogged episode one yesterday).

Aw, who’m I kidding? This kind of thing never stays dead.

The snooper’s charter has reminded Nick Clegg, finally, he is a liberal

    

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Debunking the HTML5 DRM myths


Kyre sez, “The Free Culture Foundation has posted a thorough response to the most common and misinformed defenses of the W3C’s Extended Media Extensions (EME) proposal to inject DRM into HTML5. They join the EFF and FSF in a call to send a strong message to the W3C that DRM in HTML5 undermines the W3C’s self-stated mission to make the benefits of the Web ‘available to all people, whatever their hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture, geographical location, or physical or mental ability.’ The FCF counters the three most common myths by unpacking some quotes which explain that 1.) DRM is not about protecting copyright. That is a straw man. DRM is about limiting the functionality of devices and selling features back in the form of services. 2.) DRM in HTML5 doesn’t obsolete proprietary, platform-specific browser plug-ins; it encourages them. 3.) the Web doesn’t need big media; big media needs the Web. There is also a new coalition of 27 internet freedom companies and groups standing up to the W3C.”

Don’t let the myths fool you: the W3C’s plan for DRM in HTML5 is a betrayal to all Web users.

    

Posted on

Debunking the HTML5 DRM myths


Kyre sez, “The Free Culture Foundation has posted a thorough response to the most common and misinformed defenses of the W3C’s Extended Media Extensions (EME) proposal to inject DRM into HTML5. They join the EFF and FSF in a call to send a strong message to the W3C that DRM in HTML5 undermines the W3C’s self-stated mission to make the benefits of the Web ‘available to all people, whatever their hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture, geographical location, or physical or mental ability.’ The FCF counters the three most common myths by unpacking some quotes which explain that 1.) DRM is not about protecting copyright. That is a straw man. DRM is about limiting the functionality of devices and selling features back in the form of services. 2.) DRM in HTML5 doesn’t obsolete proprietary, platform-specific browser plug-ins; it encourages them. 3.) the Web doesn’t need big media; big media needs the Web. There is also a new coalition of 27 internet freedom companies and groups standing up to the W3C.”

Don’t let the myths fool you: the W3C’s plan for DRM in HTML5 is a betrayal to all Web users.

    

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EFF, FSF, Creative Commons and many others ask W3C to reject DRM conspiracy

John from the Free Software Foundation sez,

Hollywood is making yet another attempt to lock down the Web. Undeterred by SOPA’s failure, Hollywood is conspiring with tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Netflix to try to influence the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). A proposal currently under consideration at W3C would *build accommodation for Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) into HTML itself.* The W3C’s job is to keep the Web working for everyone; building DRM into HTML would be a dramatic departure from the NGO’s mission.

Today a coalition, organized by the Free Software Foundation and including EFF and Creative Commons, released a joint letter to the W3C condemning the proposal. The coalition is also asking Web users to send a message to W3C by signing a petition>.

The coalition says, “Ratifying EME would be an abdication of responsibility; it would harm interoperability, enshrine nonfree software in W3C standards and perpetuate oppressive business models. It would fly in the face of the principles that the W3C cites as key to its mission and it would cause an array of serious problems for the billions of people who use the Web.”

I wrote about this in detail in the Guardian in March.

Keep DRM out of Web standards — Reject the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) proposal (Thanks, John!)

    

Posted on

EFF, FSF, Creative Commons and many others ask W3C to reject DRM conspiracy

John from the Free Software Foundation sez,

Hollywood is making yet another attempt to lock down the Web. Undeterred by SOPA’s failure, Hollywood is conspiring with tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Netflix to try to influence the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). A proposal currently under consideration at W3C would *build accommodation for Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) into HTML itself.* The W3C’s job is to keep the Web working for everyone; building DRM into HTML would be a dramatic departure from the NGO’s mission.

Today a coalition, organized by the Free Software Foundation and including EFF and Creative Commons, released a joint letter to the W3C condemning the proposal. The coalition is also asking Web users to send a message to W3C by signing a petition>.

The coalition says, “Ratifying EME would be an abdication of responsibility; it would harm interoperability, enshrine nonfree software in W3C standards and perpetuate oppressive business models. It would fly in the face of the principles that the W3C cites as key to its mission and it would cause an array of serious problems for the billions of people who use the Web.”

I wrote about this in detail in the Guardian in March.

Keep DRM out of Web standards — Reject the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) proposal (Thanks, John!)