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[version française dans un autre message] Dear all: We are forwarding to you the introductory note on Digital Rights Management (concept which includes Technology Protection Measures). It was submitted to ITU by a number of organizations including EFF. Please find the executive summary in the body of this mail and the full version attached. We hope to receive your comments on it, and also different points of view on this issue. Best regards --- Digital Rights Management: A failure in the developed world, a danger to the developing world For the International Telecommunications Union, ITU-R Working Party 6M Report on Content Protection Technologies Executive Summary --- This paper discusses the failure of DRM in the developed world, where it has been in wide deployment for a decade with no benefit to artists and with substantial cost to the public and to due process, free speech and other civil society fundamentals. --- Development and IP IP regimes vary from nation to nation and reflect national development priorities A given nation's limitations and exceptions to copyright are a powerful means of boosting local industry and fostering domestic entrepreneurs DRM can be used to overrule these priorities, so that foreign companies can trump local domestic policy with technological means DRM systems make rich-country assumptions about family and domestic life that are inappropriate to many developing countries DRM in the developed world DRM systems can't protect themselves, they require "anti-circumvention" laws to silence researchers who discover their flaws Anti-circumvention laws have been used to silence and even jail researchers who embarrassed entertainment companies and DRM vendors with revelations about the failings in their systems Some nations have a trade obligation to implement anti-circumvention laws, but this obligation is less strict than many national implementations in law The safest course of action for government is to reject DRM in its own documents and in documents produced by contractors Consumer interests DRM systems retard innovation, putting new features under the veto of incumbent industries who fear being out-competed by new market entrants "Renewable" DRM can be used to cheat consumers by removing or altering features after they have bought their devices Disabled people Copyright law often affords rights to disabled people that trump the rights of authors DRM lets private rightsholders unilaterally prevent the exercise of those rights The ability of disabled people to benefit from digital media is badly undermined by DRM Libraries The success of the information society depends on digital content being accessible. Digital content must not locked up behind technical barriers. Libraries must not be prevented by DRM from availing themselves of their lawful rights under national copyright law and must be able to extend their services to the digital environment. Long term preservation and archiving, essential to preserving cultural identities, maintaining diversity of peoples, languages and cultures and in shaping the future, must not be jeopardized by DRM. DRM in the developing world DRM systems overrule local copyright limitations DRM systems often assume infrastructure that isn't present in the developing world Local authors and performers DRM systems require that their users take a restrictive license from a cartel, often at a high cost These licenses have the effect of turning publishers, performers and author into customers for developed-world intermediaries to whom they become beholden Resale of goods Developing nations have a widespread reliance on low-cost used goods DRM systems are used to prevent the re-sale, lending and donation of information goods Public Domain Many works are out of copyright or were not copyrightable to begin with These works are a potential free library for developing world educators, researchers and development workers DRM can be used by companies to assert ownership of these public goods Free and Open Source Software Free and open source software is critical to current and future development efforts as it provides a hedge against anticompetitive behavior, and is readily localized into local languages DRM technologies cannot be embodied in FOSS and so any field where DRM is adopted crowds out FOSS and eliminates the development benefits therein Region coding Windowing and region coding are used to discriminate against poor countries by offering them information goods only after they have exhausted their commercial potential in rich countries Distance education Distance education is a key means of providing access to education in the developing world DRM undermines distance education by raising the cost of providing instructional materials and by placing barriers to storing, transmitting and using distance education materials. DRM can't benefit local cultural production DRM can't "keep honest users honest" -- users are either honest or they aren't Adopting DRM locks your industries and your citizens into a DRM vendor for all time DRM has been a total failure at keeping works offline For DRM to work, it must succeed in keeping materials off of the Internet But no piece of DRM-restricted media has ever succeeding at doing this Successful local culture providers are turning to copyleft Rich countries are developing ambitious programs to put the "crown jewels" of their culture online without DRM and without legal restriction If you adopt DRM, your local culture will be crowded out by this freer, more open culture Presented by : Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) Union for the Public Domain (www.public-domain.org) Open Knowledge Forum (www.okfn.org) IP Justice (www.ipjustice.org) Alternative Law Forum (Bangalore) (www.altlawforum.org) World Blind Union (www.wbu.org) European Digital Rights Initiative (www.edri.org) Electronic Frontier Finland (www.effi.org) Foundation for Information Policy Research (www.fipr.org) Free Government Information (freegovinfo.info) Vereniging Open Source Nederland (www.vosn.nl) |
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ITU_DRM_paper.pdf
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