The protesters who took part in the protests about Apple's DRM on Saturday clearly made it appear as if DRM is a toxic substance that one should avoid. Those involved dressed up in bright yellow hazardous material suits outside of the stores carrying signs showing the cuffed iPod listener and "Eliminate DRM" and handed out leaflets to the public about this problem.
Their argument was about being unable to resell music bought on iTunes unlike with physical media and about Apple using DRM to lock-in iTunes customers to its iPod series. The protests took place outside of 8 Apple stores across the US and ran from 10am until midday.
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They argue that it is unreasonable, among other things, that purchasers of music tracks on iTunes are not able to resell their music once they have finished with it - a right they previously had when they used to buy physical media. Where as to most people DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, Defective By Design label it 'Digital Restrictions Management.' Their particular beef with Apple is that, because of the use of DRM, Apple are locking-in people who buy music tracks at the iTunes store. The full article, including video footage can be accessed here. Some further info about the protest can be found on the DefectiveByDesign.org website. |
Unfortunately, not much news had been made about this protest, but at least they tried. 😉 However, it looks like once the protest finished, it was business as usual again for Apple's stores and its iTunes service.
Source: Digital Lifestyles
