DRM ‘protection’ laws needed
p2p news / p2pnet: New laws are needed to guard against DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) and protect peoples’ rights to listen to digital music and watch movies, says Britain’s National Consumer Council (NCC).
Anti-piracy efforts were eroding established rights to digital media, says the organization, quoted by the BBC.
"The NCC had little faith that industry self-regulation would adequately protect consumers’ rights," stated the NCC to a parliamentary inquiry, “into technologies that limit what people can do with CDs, DVDs and downloaded media,” says the BBC, going on:
"In its submission to the inquiry, the NCC said many consumers were regularly running up against the restrictions record companies and film makers put on their products. The consumer group said people were finding that they could not make compilations for their own use or easily move digital copies between different devices.”
In its statement, the NCC said digital locks put on content were, “constraining the legitimate consumer use of digital content” and also undermined were rights established by consumer protection and data protection laws”.
Consumers now face, "security risks to their equipment, limitations on their use of products, poor information when purchasing products and unfair contract terms,’ PC Pro has NCC director of policy Jill Johnstone saying.
The NCC also asks if the types of information required by DRM to enforce rights may infringe the rights to privacy that consumers expect under the Data Protection Act, says the story, adding:
"The NCC goes on to highlight the Sony ‘rootkit fiasco’ and issues surrounding music downloads, such as DRM systems limiting consumers’ ability to transfer purchased music onto other computers they own or to other devices. This, they point out, means that ‘consumers who wish to change their music service providers or playback devices are often obliged to repurchase music files in a different format’."
The NCC comments come in a submission to MPs on The All Party Internet Group inquiry into Digital Rights Management.
Also See:
BBC – Fears raised over digital rights, January 16, 2006
PC Pro – UK watchdog howls at DRM woes, January 16, 2006
January 17th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
ahhh why bother? When Vista arrives all the worries will be fixed. You won’t be able to do anything Bill doesn’t want you to do…..or what he gets paid to let you do.
January 17th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
What a defeatist attitude. Have you ever heard of linux? I guess not.
If you want an inefficient, resource hungry, bloated, insecure and lets not forget DRM laden OS, sure by all means BUY vista (XP + a new coat of paint).
If you are like me and enjoy fast, responsive, secure, free, open source software, i suggest you try a linux distribution.
Remember my friend, you should be in control of software, not the other way around
January 17th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
Linux is not for everyone. I use both and Linux can be MUCH harder to configure than windows. Most of Windows configuration involves clicking on icons, Linux is configured by editing text files. You need to know what file to edit, the proper command to enter/modify, and the case of the command as well. Also, you need to be careful when buying hardware for Linux, as not everything supports it, and no, the average comp user is NOT going to too happy about “recompiling the kernal”. Another issue is gaming. Many of the newest games do not have a Linux edition. If someone is a hardcore gamer, Linux is probably not for them. Linux does have advantages, (free, most viruses don’t work on it, many free programs, stable). Ubuntu is a pretty good Linux distro, you have access to the apt-get repository of software and it comes with a bootable CD so you can try it out without installing it. I don’t intend to get Vista, unless a version is released on p2p that has the drm hacked out of it. Even then I intend to stick with XP for as long as possible for my windows PC. (I have a laptop running Linux)
January 18th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
I don’t like Windows that much, but I hate Linux even more. Linux is such as huge pain in the ass to configure and use. Not everyone is a programmer/hacker or a genius after all, and we (the masses) like software that simply works / works simply. I’ll probably move to Vista for a couple of reasons. For one, no choice. The bulk of software I use, especially games, runs on Windows only, so Windows it must be for me, and likely the masses as well. Another reason is that XP won’t be supported forever. At some point even the hold outs (which I will certainly be) will have to switch. I do have some hope for Vista though. The DRM is souding bothersome, especially regarding HD content. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as we all think it will be. I mean, the code is being rebuilt fresh from the ground up rather than using any old spagetti code, and the focus will obviously be on security this time around. One feature that sounds promising to me is full volume encryption which I need to read up on yet (was using XP’s EFS, now using TrueCrypt, both have some really annoying down sides). I doubt I’ll upgrade right away. Like the above poster, I too will likely wait until it’s proven itself, and look into getting a version that has the DRM hacked out of it. The idea of Linux is a nice one, but that’s all it’s ever going to be, an idea and a dream. An note worthy anomoly made by and geared towards the enthusiasts out there. Yes, I’m a bit of a hardware nerd, but I like my software to just work with minimum fuss and Linux just can’t fullfill that need no matter what the zealots will say in response to my post, and yes I’ve actually tried a number of distributions. Mostly the most popular ones (Unbuntu, Redhat, etc).