Letter: DRM-enabled products violate property and privacy rights regardless of adequate disclosures

In response to the article DRM-enabled products and services are watching you: CIPPICIn order to understand the controversy around it is critical to understand that there are two locks: a lock on content intended to circumvent competition policy to only allow access by "authorized" devices, and a lock on devices to disallow the owner to control what they otherwise "own." DRM proponents speak as if the digital lock on the content is the issue, while and most DRM opponents are discussing the various rights being circumvented by the digital lock on the devices.A good analogy for this lock on devices is a lock on the door to your home where you as the owner are not be allowed to posses or control the keys for these locks. When owners are not able to posses or control the keys in order to protect their basic property rights, it should be obvious that privacy and other legal rights will be circumvented as well.It is because I see this as a basic property rights issue that I disagree with Fewer that this abuse of digital locks is not inherently a violation of property, privacy and other rights. It isn't simply the fact that the ways in which they violate our rights isn't adequately disclosed, but that they are being violated at all.I believe that not only should we not be passing laws which legally protect these two controversial locks (one that circumvents competition law, the other that circumvents property rights), but that we should be clearly legislating against these abusive techniques.It will be interesting to see if the Conservative party, a party historically supportive of property rights, will clearly protect property rights if they decide to ratify the 1996 WIPO treaties.Russell McOrmond is an Ottawa-based Internet consultant as well as the coordinator for the petition to protect IT property rights.

Letter: DRM-enabled products violate property and privacy rights regardless of adequate disclosures

Broadcast | September 25, 2007

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