[fc-uk-discuss] CC Issues [Was: Celebrating appropriation - A freeCulture fanzine.]

[rob at robmyers.org]

Quoting MJ Ray <mjr at phonecoop.coop>:

> rob at robmyers.org wrote:
>> If that's DRM media then good. The freedom to deny freedom is not a freedom.
>
> It is possible to use DRM media while not denying freedom,
> by workarounds like parallel non-DRM distribution. Sadly, some
> people have devices which require DRM: should we deny them freedom
> to read?

This is an interesting question. I don't think we are the ones denying 
DRM users
their freedom to read, the DRM manufacturers are. If we don't discriminate
against DRM manufacturers we are aiding them in their discrimination against
their users. We are denying their users the ability to edit, transfer and
redistribute work, even to read it again, in the name of enabling a model of
temporary permission to read.

DRM on media may effectively be tivoisation if not tackled properly.

> No, the freedom to deny freedom is not a freedom.

My position for 3.0 (which I've articulated on cc-license-discuss) is that
non-DRM distribution should be the default and the presumption. Non-DRM 
content
should not be hidden somewhere below the WMF or RAM versions, or available on
DVD-ROM within twenty-eight days for fifty quid. If people wish to help DRM
manufacturers, they can do that after they have helped everyone else by making
the real (free) version available.

I'm not even sure you should be able to lock CC work onto an iPod or a TP
computer, but I am sure that there would be an outcry if you couldn't.

One possibility springs to mind, although it may be completely impractical, I
don't know the EUCD/DMCA that well. I know that GPL 3.0 draft states that
GPL-ed software may not be regareded as forming part of a technological
protection measure, so that hacking any GPL-3 software doesn't count as 
  a DMCA
violation. Could the CC licenses state that removing DRM from work covered by
them is not a DMCA violation (for whatever convoluted reason)? :-)

> will that be fixed in 2.5
> and will EnW 2.5 come out before the overdue free-friendly CC 3.0?

Do please ask on the cc-uk list as I agree that these are important issues.

- Rob.