EFF, FSF, Creative Commons and many others ask W3C to reject DRM conspiracy

John from the Free Software Foundation sez,

Hollywood is making yet another attempt to lock down the Web. Undeterred by SOPA’s failure, Hollywood is conspiring with tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Netflix to try to influence the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). A proposal currently under consideration at W3C would *build accommodation for Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) into HTML itself.* The W3C’s job is to keep the Web working for everyone; building DRM into HTML would be a dramatic departure from the NGO’s mission.

Today a coalition, organized by the Free Software Foundation and including EFF and Creative Commons, released a joint letter to the W3C condemning the proposal. The coalition is also asking Web users to send a message to W3C by signing a petition>.

The coalition says, “Ratifying EME would be an abdication of responsibility; it would harm interoperability, enshrine nonfree software in W3C standards and perpetuate oppressive business models. It would fly in the face of the principles that the W3C cites as key to its mission and it would cause an array of serious problems for the billions of people who use the Web.”

I wrote about this in detail in the Guardian in March.

Keep DRM out of Web standards — Reject the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) proposal (Thanks, John!)