Save Ukraine

Note #311

Christian Kruse

Cory Doctorow wites about DRM products and that they are defective by design. He asks a good question: if DRM is so good for us, then why aren't DRM products labeled as such?

In our open letter on DRM labelling – a letter signed by a diverse coalition of rights holders, public interest groups, and publishers – we ask the FTC to take action to ensure that people know what they’re getting when they buy products encumbered with DRM.

He further points out that DRM is often designed as a kill switch:

What’s more, most modern DRM is designed for “renewability” – which is a DRM-vendor euphemism for a remote kill-switch. These DRM tools phone home periodically for updates, and install these updates without user intervention, and then disable some or all of the features that were there when you bought the product.

Interesting read!