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FSF - Reaction to the DRM clause in GPLv3

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FSF - Reaction to the DRM clause in GPLv3
Topic: Miscellaneous 5:43 pm EST, Mar  8, 2006

One common view among programmers is that the GPL should say nothing at all about DRM, because DRM is a technical problem, and can be solved by technical means. This was true five years ago -- all DRM was ultimately software, all software is data, and all data is mutable. So, DRM could always be circumvented. In other words, these people are perfectly happy to have DRM so long as it is toothless.

I should note that this view is somewhat elitist. Of course programmers can break software-based DRM. But non-programmers have to wait until a programmer does the work, and then have to figure out whatever tools the programmer wrote. That's not always easy -- DeCSS was written in 1998, but it was not until 2001 that user-friendly DVD ripping software became available.

But even if it were acceptable to have DRM from which programmers could free themselves, that's not the DRM we have in 2006

FSF - Reaction to the DRM clause in GPLv3



 
 
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