BPL & DRM

Passing this along without comment (at least for the moment).

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DefectiveByDesign.org will be taking action this Saturday at the Boston Public Library to demand that they remove DRM technology from their collection! We will be gathering outside the entrance at the main branch of the Boston Public Library (700 Boylston St., Boston MA 02116) at 1PM on Saturday, February 9th, 2008. Please, Sign-up if you are attending.

* Location: 700 Boylston St., Boston MA 02116
* Time: 1:00--3:00PM on Saturday, February 9th, 2008
* Sign-up link

If you can't join us, we encourage you to take action against any library in your area that has DRM technology infecting its collection. You can customize our flyer and pass it out to the local patrons and librarians in your area.

The Boston Public Library has Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) on its ebooks, audio books, music, and videos, and we are demanding that they remove it, and establish a policy against DRM -- a policy that respects user freedom.

We know that the real motive behind DRM technology schemes is to increase profits for those who impose them, but their profit is a side issue when millions of people's freedom is at stake; desire for profit, though not wrong in itself, cannot justify denying the public control over its technology and its libraries. Defending freedom means thwarting DRM.

Join us in demanding that the BPL Trust and libraries worldwide eliminate DRM from their collections.

We'll report back on the success of our action here in Boston -- Be sure to tell us about your local actions too!
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All I can say is your actions arw a big FAIL!

You remove the DRM and you'll remove the content. There's no way they'll have the content without the DRM. So please, get over yourselves.

Yes, get over yourselves. Remember, the book and CD were complete failures until they invented DRM. And, hey, fair use rights are like freedom of speech; just because you have those "rights", doesn't mean you shouldn't be punished for trying to use them.

Oh, what nonsense. User freedom? You mean you want the ability to steal the content. And I must say that "demanding" things from people whom you simultaneously insult is not a particularly effective means of accomplishing your goal.

http://xkcd.com/488/ has it right; it's not about stealing the content, it's about using the content. The tooltip mentions that he took more time to play a DRM-ed ebook than it took to listen to it.

It's not about stealing the content; no DRM has ever stopped that, or ever will. If you can view it, you can copy it through analog means. If you have the hardware, enough work will find a weak hole in the encryption system and provide a way to dump it to a pure digital format. And digitally, once it's cracked by anyone, it can go up on the Pirate Bay or IRC and be distributed freely.

All this is does is prevent the average person from viewing/listening on whatever hardware they want and making backup copies. It uses technical means and the DCMA to try and reverse the Betamax decision; i.e. the goal is to interfere with fair use rights. The goal is to prevent people from burning their Blu-Rays to DVD or their audiobooks to CD and playing them in their cars. It prevents the blind from using etexts as freely as they would a braille text, or parents from copying a child's DVD so sticky fingers don't destroy it in short order.

I don't know who you're accusing of insulting people, but this thread started pretty early with "your actions arw a big FAIL!", not the most polite or reasonable statements. Perhaps all of us can be more polite and reasonable from this point out.

I'm sure at least some of those messages were meant to be sarcastic. It can be hard to read that tone in online discussion boards, though.

As a user of BPL audiobooks with an ipod, all I can say is this one's apple's fault, not BPLs. Best move around the corner - there is a nice Apple Store on Boylston not far away.

For the non-initiate, the provider of audiobooks used by the BPL and many other libraries has a limited selection that can play on an ipod, because their usual digital rights management software doesn't work with ipods and itunes. This is because apple, of course, has a digital strategy of going it alone and maintaining proprietary formats.

Libraries are lending institutions, and book publishers are for profit institutions. It makes sense that publishers would not want their audio books to be available without restriction from libraries - who would ever buy an audiobook then? Without some type of drm, you aren't engaged in lended, you're engaged in giving it away.

Now, I'd love to have the full selection for my ipod, but the folks making that difficult aren't the BPL, which has done a great job on a limited budget of providing access to digital content (including much beyond audiobooks).

So, please, move around the corner, where the real problem lies.

prosfilaes - I think the comic you link to doesn't apply to a borrowing istitution. Yes, if you switch systems or software you can lose the ability to use purchased digital content, which frustrates us all.

How does this apply to drm designed to make sure you can't use a book after the two week borrowing period is over? If you switch your system during the two weeks, return your book and take out the same book in a different format.

Protesting the folks who make it possible to borrow is counterproductive. Indeed, the first post makes no cogent argument for protesting the library, and the particular form of DRM that libraries use.

Think first, protest second.

As a user of open-source software, I can't use DRM'd materials at all (I've tried, and lost my money). Restricting access to what should be publicly-available materials defeats the entire purpose of libraries.

Why should an audiobook, lent for two weeks, be "publicly available"?

And you won't lose any money. It costs nothing to borrow from the BPL.

I understand protesting Apple. No problems there. I'd like them to change. But the BPL is our friend.

It already is publicly available -- you can rent it for two weeks. If it has DRM, though, it's only available to folks with the right software, unlike the rest of its collection.

> 11 If it has DRM, though, it's only available to folks with the right software, unlike the rest of its collection.

Anything in a library collection is only usable if you have the right technology. If you don't have a CD player, the music or audiobook CDs are not "available" for your use, the same with DVDs or MP3s or cassettes or VHS tapes.

Yes, I wrote too loosely since I took it for granted that we were talking about DRM, malicious hardware and software that seeks to strip control over technology and unilaterally restrict its use. Not something a library should get mixed up with. You can learn about DRM at DefectiveByDesign.org.

12> However, CD, DVD and MP3 players are pretty universal equipment, available from a wide range of manufacturers and owned by most patrons already. To make it more available and include the player would be expensive and actually make it less useful to many people.