Re: [Fsfe-uk] address@hidden: JISC DRM Workshop - Manchester Friday 14th May]

[MJ Ray]

On 2004-04-22 22:47:04 +0100 Jim Peters <address@hidden> wrote:

> Incidentally, as far as I can see, DRM and open-source do not mix at
> all well.  A DRM decoder would ideally be closed-source and run in the
> most restrictive environment possible for the decoder design to meet
> its objectives

Supposedly closed decoders for sat-tv seem to get cracked fairly 
regularly. I suspect strength of the encryption is more critical once 
it's non-stupid. Things like modularity are also important, to allow 
the "arms race" to continue in the face of more computer power.

> programs recognise content that is legal to re-use, generally granting
> freedoms instead of attempting to take them away; does this count as a
> form of "DRM", though?)

I think so, although people normally mean "Digital Rights 
*Restrictions by Technology*" (DRRT, pronounced "dirt") rather than 
rights management when they write DRM. Here, they explicitly say they 
want to cover all of it. Things like the Copyright headers in package 
files or archive sections of some GNU-Linux distributions are probably 
also really forms of DRM, making licensing easier to manage.

> We are holding a workshop on Friday, 14th May from 10.30 - 3.30 at 
> Manchester 
> University
[...]
> The Digital Rights Management Study (DRM)  is part of the JISC's 
> "Middleware 
> and Shared Services  Studies" programme 
> (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=prog_middss_studies).
>
> There is JISC mailing list to receive information: 
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/JISC-DRM.html.  The project website 
> is 
> http://www.intrallect.com/drm-study/index.htm.

Will someone please monitor these and tell AFFS about it? Jim, would 
you? If required, I would expect we could formally "ennoble"(?) people 
with titles ("AFFS-MIDDSS liaison"?) and crap that the outside world 
like.

How does this interact with the open formats workgroup? Are things 
like OEBPS here again?

--
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