Admittedly, I do not own an iPod, but consider it a symbol for my point. I got to thinking about this the other day when I became wholly frustrated at not being able to legally make backup copies of movies that I thought I had purchased. Naturally, I started cursing copy protection technolgies and pined for the days of recording the latest Van Halen LP — these were made of vinyl, kiddies — to cassette so I could listen to it in my Z28 stereo on the way to school. (Insert nostalgiac moment here.)

Was the music on that duped cassette “free”? Of course not, but I was free to do for my personal use with that music as I so chose because I had purchased that right upon paying cash monies to Warner Bros. for the vinyl with the grooves on it. As we all know, somewhere along the line since then, my rights got swapped for restrictions.

Don’t let the entertainment industries dupe you into believing that Digital Rights Management protects the artists. Pffft. It clearly protects corporate profits. Hell, the latest lobbying by the record companies in Washington argues that copy protection ultimately helps to prevent terrorist attacks. WTF? (On the flip side, one might credibly claim that Hannah Montana is, in fact, a terrorist attack on young teenagers.)

Anyhow, off to work for me. I leave you with this:

What is DRM?

Digital Restrictions Management – it restricts what you
and your family can do with the electronic devices and
media purchased. It is an attempt by technology and
media companies to take away your rights.
DRM software and hardware monitors and controls
your family’s behavior.

iPod users are restricted from transferring their music to
other non­Apple devices because the music downloaded
from iTunes is encrypted ­ locked with DRM. Apple
allows you to write an audio CD, but will leave you with
very lousy sound quality if you ever want to take your
music to a new portable device in a compressed format.

Sony Music has secretly planted DRM “rootkits” on
computers when users purchased music CDs from them.
DRM is more than a nuisance. The film and music
industry are setting the agenda to increase their control.
They have demanded that technology companies impose
DRM to deliver for them what their political lobbying to
change copyright law never has: they aim to turn every
interaction with a published work into a transaction,
abolishing fair use and the commons, and making
copyright last forever. By accepting DRM users
unwittingly surrender their rights and invite a deeper
surveillance. This will put your family’s viewing,
listening, reading, browsing records on file with them.

What gives them that right?

DRM Means: No fair use. No purchase and resell. No
private copies. No sharing. No backup. No swapping. No
mix tapes. No privacy. No commons. No control over
our computers. No control over our electronic devices.
The conversion of our homes into apparatus to monitor
our interaction with published works and web sites.

What you can do

Stay away from DRM­dependent products like Blu­ray
and HD­DVD, iTunes, Windows Media Player, Zune,
Amazon Unbox…  Stay away from retailers who insist on
making DRM part of the package.  Stop financing the
people who want to restrict you. Find out more at
www.DefectiveByDesign.org

Now, brush up on some ways to protect yourself, and convert all of your CDs to OGG format. Cheers!