Hanford Lemoore points out that not all DRM is bad.  Specifically, takes the position that DRM for trial software (try-before-you-buy) is good.   I’ll have to admit that until now I’ve been vehemently opposed to all DRM.  I had not even considered the TBYB model.
Most software trial versions I’ve used did not have DRM, but were [...]

The AACS LA doesn’t want you to have the number 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2.  They can bite my computer’s shiny metal ass.  [h/t Boing Boing]

The AACS-LA claims to own the hexadecimal number 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0 (decimal 13256278887989457651018865901401704640), and is threatening those who post it online, even though they also claim that the distribution of the number is not a problem for the viability of the AACS system.  If it’s not a problem, why do they need to threaten people who [...]

The Free Software Foundation has started a “Defective by Design” campaign to eliminate DRM (Digital Restrictions Management).
DRM is intended to prevent unauthorized copying of music, movies, and software. However, it also prevents copying and use that is within fair use rights provided by copyright law. In many cases, DRM is also harmful to [...]

Professor Ed Felten writes about how HDCP Could Have Been Better, primarily by using well-known but more secure cryptography rather than a homebrew algorithm. He points out that the reason the flawed HDCP algorithm is being used may be due to a requirement of a very small gate count for the silicon implementations.
We (the [...]

I have a damaged DVD that will no longer play in my DVD player. My computer seems to be able to read it OK. The official position of the MPAA is that I’m shit-outa-luck, and should just buy another copy. Naturally I prefer to exercise fair use rights, and make a backup [...]

This morning I awakened from a horrible nightmare. Perhaps somewhat apropos for Halloween. But the dream didn’t involve vampires, wiches, or ghosts. It was about Digital Restrictions Management (DRM).
I dreamt that I went into a bookstore to browse. I pulled a book from a shelf and opened it, only to find [...]

In a Freedom to Tinker posting, Ed Felten writes about AACS, the replacement for CSS to be used for encrypting high-definition video discs:
This scheme limits entry to the market for players, [...] This plan won’t stop filesharing, though
I speculate that the primary objective must be to enforce region coding. I doubt that [...]