Paper on DRM and development
A host of organisations working for a reorientation of copyright laws towards the public interest have published a paper (.pdf) on Digital Restrictions Management.
I don’t quite get why they insist on calling it “digital rights management” – you don’t call a prison “movement rights management”, do you? -, but the paper highlights the dangers of digital restrictions management for the developing world. This is a welcome addition to the debate highlighting the damage such systems do to knowledge and culture.
This paper discusses the failure of Digital Rights Management (DRM) in the developed world, where it has been in wide deployment for a decade with no benefit to artists and with substantial cost to the public and to due process, free speech and other civil society fundamentals. This paper also discusses the special risks to the developing world posed by DRM through restrictions on liberty, distance education, development efforts, criticism, and the creation and dissemination of culture.
The rightsholding industry is fighting tooth and nail to keep its outdated business models functioning. Let’s fight back.