Digital Freedom

As long as I haven't climbed down from my soapbox (I like the view), I should mention The Digital Freedom Campaign. You may not know it but the Evil Corporations™ are working very hard to limit what you can do with the music, books, and movies you purchase. If you think this isn't a big deal, go buy a song on ITunes and try to play it on an MP3 player that's not an IPod. You can't. Can you imagine buying a CD at the store and only having it work in your Nissan's CD player but not your Ford's? You'd be upset, right? Digital Rights Management is software that controls how you can use the music and movies you own and the large record labels and movie studios are really pushing it. Its good for them but it is not good for consumers. Make sure to check out Defective By Design to learn why DRM isn't good for consumers.  

If you need an example of how DRM can effect you today, read about the Sony Rootkit. Essentially, Sony shipped music CDs with software on them that secretly installed itself onto any computer the CD was played on. The software was intended to prevent people from copying the CDs and could not be uninstalled. It remained secretly hidden on the computer and silently prevented copying. 52 different albums were shipped with this software before a security expert noticed it. In the resulting controversy, Sony was forced to recall the CDs, provide software to remove the program, and in many cases, pay fines. All this was done in the name of controlling what the consumer could do with the music they had purchased. It only gets worse from here.