[okfn-discuss] Keeping DRM out of HTML5

Fri Mar 22 16:29:36 UTC 2013

On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 03:12:31PM +0100, Harry Halpin wrote:
> I am against DRM in HTML5 as a person. However, I might add that Cory
> Doctorow hasn't thought things through very well.
> 
> Is it better to have DRM-supporting companies come to W3C and discuss their
> ideas there, where it can be blocked by a democratic process - an objection
> by the Advisory Committee members of the W3C could block Encrypted Media
> Extensions, such as Apache - or FSF, OKFN, etc. if they would join W3C,
> which is very cheap for non-profits.

Just being there won't be enough. Participating in standardisation
processes is *a lot* of work, and not of the most riveting kind.
Few NGOs have the capacity to pursue this with the required
intensity. The backers of DRM have far more resources, and are
thus more likely to get their way. 

On the other hand, W3C's fundamental role in building and
maintaining the open web has been crucial, in particular its
strict royalty-free policy for patents in standards. If W3C leaves
this path, there's very little to prevent the organisation from
producing even more questionable standards in future. 

> Or would you prefer the DRM companies to go off and cook DRM for the Web up
> in their own member-only, closed-door consortium?

As a matter of fact, yes. Looking at the, ahem, "success" of
technologies such as Flash and Silverlight, they're welcome to
try. 

Best regards,
Karsten
-- 
Karsten Gerloff                      [ ]   <gerloff at fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe   [ ][ ][ ]      [http://fsfe.org]
President                            | |         +49 176 9690 4298
Your donation powers our work!           [http://fsfe.org/donate/]

Free Software Foundation Europe e.V. is a German Verein registered
at the Registergericht Hamburg (VR 17030). 

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 836 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-discuss/attachments/20130322/c44a69bc/attachment.sig>