ORG in the FT

Posted by Suw Charman in DRM, In The Press at June 14th, 2006

In the UK, the Open Rights Group, another consumer protection organisation, has been lobbying MPs to force companies to open up their DRM. “If I buy a car I expect any brand of petrol to work in it. Consumers are starting to see that they can do less with the music they buy,” says Suw Charman, executive director of the group.

Crunch time for Apple’s music icon

Props to Cory for the ‘do less with‘ line, which always seems to make the point beautifully.

2 Responses to “ORG in the FT”

  1. Matt Oakes Says:

    Mr Mulligan argues that there is no objective reason why legislators and consumers bodies across Europe should target music rather than other electronic devices such as video games consoles.

    That line cracked me up :P What do they want games consoles to do, magicaly become cross platform :P Music players on the other hand can all play the same music, aslong as the format is opened for others to use.

    Saying all this if DRM is opened up too much then it becomes useless at controling where music is played.

    Myself, I will never ever buy anything with DRM’s on as the limit what I can do and usually are mroe expensive than a CD, why bother? My mates either do what I do or even just buy it off iTunes and then remove the DRM.

  2. Jose Says:

    User’s rights folks need to work on their language when pitching their memes to non-techies as the issue is very complicated and most people just don’t grok it. I’ve tried a bit of preaching myself and have met with limited sucess. Fortunately Suw knows what’s she’s doing in this regard. Keep up the good work babe it’s appreciated.

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