ORG Issue: DRM

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is software intended to stop illegal copying by giving rightsholders control over how you use your digital media. But DRM doesn’t work: all DRM can be cracked, and it only takes one person to upload a song or film to a peer-to-peer filesharing system for millions of people to be able to download it. DRM prevents many legal uses of media files and chills market competition by locking consumers in to particular platforms.

Latest DRM news

ORG on the BBC

Posted by Suw Charman on June 15th, 2006 in categories DRM, In The Press 1 Comment »

The Apple/iPod DRM story seems to be a hot one at the moment. I’ve just got back from the Apple Store, where I did an interview with BBC journalist Sumant Bhatia. The segment will be on World Business Report on BBC World tomorrow morning, which BBC1 and BBC News 24 air at 0530. After that, [...]

ORG in the FT

Posted by Suw Charman on June 14th, 2006 in categories DRM, In The Press 2 Comments »

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 [...]

Denmark, Norway and Sweden put pressure on Apple’s iTunes

Posted by Suw Charman on June 13th, 2006 in categories DRM 1 Comment »

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Denmark, Norway and Sweden plan to force Apple Computers Inc to break the exclusive link between its iPod music players and online iTunes store.
The three Scandinavian countries have decided to take iTunes to their respective government mediators, or ombudsmen.
“iTunes’ terms and conditions are illegal in all three countries,” Swedish Consumer Agency [...]

Launch of the APIG report on DRM

Posted by Suw Charman on June 5th, 2006 in categories DRM 4 Comments »

Last year, the Open Rights Group submitted evidence to the All Party Internet Group’s public inquiry into digital rights management (DRM) after carrying out it’s own public consultation into questions raised by the call for evidence. In February this year, ORG gave oral evidence to the APIG inquiry, giving a concise statement regarding ORG’s position [...]

Tech-Savvy MPs Come Out Against DRM

Posted by Louisiana on June 5th, 2006 in categories Copyright, DRM, Intellectual Property 2 Comments »

The All Party Parliamentary Internet Group today launched the report of their inquiry into Digital Rights Management.
ORG is pleased to see the APIG making such a robust and sensible set of recommendations, many of which coincide with ORG’s recommendations to the inquiry.
APIG points out tht DRM can have a range of damaging effects, impacting on [...]

Guardian Changing Media: Digital Rights Management

Posted by Suw Charman on March 28th, 2006 in categories Conferences, DRM No Comments »

I was yesterday at the Guardian’s Changing Media conference, at which our very own Dr Ian Brown spoke on DRM. These are my notes, cross-posted from my own blog, Strange Attractor.
Can digital rights management achieve its security goals?
Chair: Nick Higham
Dr Ian Brown, UCL (and also ORG)
Nick Higham
ONe of the things that alarms content owners [...]

French lead the way on music downloads

Posted by Suw Charman on March 21st, 2006 in categories DRM 9 Comments »

French MPs are examining measures that would force the sharing of copy-protection software with the aim of ensuring that any music can be played on any player regardless of format or source:
The French bill says that proprietary copy-protection technologies must not block interoperability between different systems.
Rightly, the French are worried about monopolies. DRM is cast [...]

Sony Get Sued in Canada

Posted by Ben Laurie on February 3rd, 2006 in categories DRM No Comments »

Michael Geist reports that Sony are facing another class action suit over their PC-damaging DRM. It looks like they were in no rush to protect consumers in Canada.
I wonder how well they did in the UK?

APIG DRM public inquiry hearing

Posted by Suw Charman on February 2nd, 2006 in categories DRM 5 Comments »

The following notes were taking during the inquiry and they are my best attempts at keeping up with what was said. They are not verbatim notes - in fact, the APIG committee is going to publish a transcript of the sessions, at which point you’ll be able to compare and contrast, and see just how [...]

ORG invited to give oral evidence to APIG DRM public inquiry

Posted by Suw Charman on January 20th, 2006 in categories DRM, ORG News No Comments »

The Open Rights Group has been asked by the All Party Parliamentary Internet Group to attend its oral evidence gathering session on 2 February. ORG will send three representatives - the maximum allowed - who will be questioned by MPs.
Other groups that have been invited include:

Society for Computers and Law
British Library
Libraries Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA)
FFII-UK
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