iPad DRM is a dangerous step backward. Sign the petition!
Dear supporter,
Today, Apple launched a computer that will never belong to its owner. Apple will use Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) to gain total veto power over the applications you use and the media you can view.
We’ve launched a petition calling out Apple’s new product for what it is: a frightening step backward for computing and for media distribution. Can you read it, sign it, and share with friends?
Also, when you’ve signed, please take the time to share the petition on sites like Identi.ca and Reddit:
www.defectivebydesign.org/shareipad
Defective by Design’s John Sullivan is on the ground at the Apple event with a group of protesters, letting the public and journalists know about the “Restriction Zone” Apple is constructing around their products. We’ll be posting images from the event throughout the day, so sign the petition and please check back frequently and help us circulate these images.
This summer we saw the dangers of DRM on ebook readers, when Amazon deleted hundreds of copies of George Orwell’s 1984 from readers’ computers while they slept. Applying this control to a general purpose computer marketed especially for media distribution is a huge step backward for computing, and a blow to the media revolution that happened when the web let bloggers reach millions without asking for permission.
DRM and forced updates will give Apple and their corporate partners the power to disable features, restrict competition, censor news, and even delete books, videos, or news stories from users’ computers while they sleep– using the device’s “always on” network connection.
Apple can say they will not abuse this power, but their record of App Store rejections gives us no reason to trust them. The Apple Tablet’s unprecedented use of DRM to control all capabilities of a general purpose computer is a dangerous step backward for computing and for media distribution; we demand that Apple remove DRM from the device.
Thank you for your support!
Sincerely, Holmes Wilson, Matt Lee, Deborah Nicholson, Peter Brown and John Sullivan — the DRM Elimination Team
January 31st, 2010 at 5:23 am
Alot of bloggers aren’t very happy with this new iPad.There was 2 much hype about it and lots of blogers got turned off.You see, I actually see lots of the awesome potential of this gadget. Third-party applications for composing music, games, newspapers and magazines and FFS books, all sorts of neat stuff, but they failed to sell it right (aside from the books). It feels kinda not finished