via digitalcitizen => Public Domain Day challenges: what effect does copyright power have on us socially?

http://www.digitalcitizen.info/2008/01/01/public-domain-day-challenges-w...

Does Microsoft's "PlaysForSure" motto really mean it plays for sure? Does Apple's "FairPlay" play fair? Not exactly, says Linux-based media device vendor, Neuros, which is promoting an "Unlocked" media trademark in response to branded, proprietary digital rights management (DRM) schemes.

"Amazon, Sony, and others are all competing to control how, what, and when we can read with their competing Digital Restrictions Management technologies. Let's let them know that we won't buy their ebook readers until they get rid of the DRM!

Join us in opposing all DRM ebook readers and DRM ebooks by taking part in this action..."

"A Canadian study found that P2P music sharing leads people to buy more CDs — just the opposite of what the advocates of DRM claim..."

I’m, first of all, a passionate for music. My passion for music before I can recall it, and grew with the fact that I had the luck to have older brother and sisters whose music collection was wide enough to feed my music interests. Also since a little kid I was interested in technology, and started programming at the age of four. Being nowadays a music lover and also a musician, and at the same time graduated and working as a Computer Science Engineer, I feel myself lucky to have some ground bases to analyse the state of music business.

DRM-free music sells at a much higher rate online than protected music, according to UK-based digital music store 7 Digital. In fact, customers buy it four times as often as they do DRMed music. As a result, almost 80 percent of the store's sales are of DRM-free content.

I thought Microsoft stuck to monitoring Vista systems but XP could be under surveillance too. If you have read my previous articles this should come as no surprise.

Microsoft - and all its DRM buddies - continue to claim up to this very day that DRM won't affect the consumer too much, "given that cost (..) is most heavily influenced by volume". However, behind closed doors the bird is singing quite another song. The following is taken from a presentation at the WinHEC 2005. Read this and shiver.