Image: Anita Givens at Texas CTO Council Meeting on 02/06/2007 Listen to Anita Givens (unedited/uncut) Anita Givens is speaking…these are my rough notes, and any inaccuracies are my fault because I couldn’t type fast enough and paraphrased. My observations are in ][ brackets. Listen to Anita to get accurate info <smile>. Thanks to Anita Givens for granting permission to share this audiocast and photo with you!!. "We now have a vehicle for sharing what Texas wants to do for tech for the next 14 years. This new plan is from 2006-2020. There 3 things that people want to know: What is it you want to accomplish? This plan really tells you where we want to go and what it’s going to take to get there. There’s a lot of talk in the plan about how much it’s going to cost. We have about 4.5 million students in Texas. Any number times 4.5 million is a big number. We can’t ask for more than we got before…we want to restore the tech allotment to $115,000,000. We are now back at level funding. In the grand scheme, there is a long road ahead. It will be the end of May before we know what the funding is going to be. It’s important to share why the investment in Ed-tech is SO important. You’ve prob heard from the national perspective, that there are some key things–global competiveness, investment increase in achievement in math and science, better prepared workforce, data-driven decision-making. [Anita is emphasizing the impact of tech and its importance]. We’re busy implementing House Bill 1. HB1 provides $275 per high school students…some of that is for advancing the academic opportunities those students have. Also a need for a 4×4 curriculum. Guess where we have the fewest teachers at our HSs…math and science. Looking for online courses, videoconferencing, technology is one of the strategies for achieving that. [someone in the audience asks why we can’t pay teachers to stay in high school in these areas…not articulated to Anita…why not?] End of course tests are being developed as online tests. Whether we continue to put TAKS online, a combo of TAKS and end of course, or end of course, the primary delivery method will as an online test. One of the things we talk about is…it’s fine to use the tech to do those things, but don’t forget about the tech that has to be in the classroom for the instructional side. We know that people recognize the need for that. Today, the House Public Education Committee, meets for the first-time. The chair of the committee is very interested in tech. There are other members who have expressed an interest in tech. A few bills have already been introduced last year is Rep. Madden is a state-wide virtual school network. Find some way to structure online learning across the State. There is a lot of interest in doing something at the state-level of coordination. What it might look like, we have no real idea. Know that is on the minds of a lot of folks. Depending on what happens, it could have a definite impact on your plans and how you will accommodate online learning. Another one is how the telecommunications infrastructure fund collection is being used. They’ve stopped all that has been done with TIF funds, but collection is still occurring. $210 million was collected, but $115 million was paid for the tech allotment. The TIF is the source of funds for the state technology allotment. We know that Senate Bill 1 has the $115 million in the appropriations bill out of general revenue. As they stop that collection, that’s going to lower the amount available…whether or not they stop that collection, what impact will that have on the tech allotment? What’s the revenue system stream or funding source? (e.g. general revenue). When you say the word instructional materials, it means diff things to diff folks. Discussion of a textbook allotment, textbook/tech allotment, and discussion continues about how to change that process. In the meantime, HB1. The Board adopted secondary math materials. Another piece of the puzzle known as ancillaries…items that the publisher provides as part of the textbook for "free." Lot of CDs come with these materials. Publishers were concerned about changing the adoption process since it was clear the legislature wanted more electronic content. So Proclamation 2004, there 14 electronic products that made the list, as well as the ancillary list. have any of you seen those materials? Do you know what’s coming? No one else but math teachers have heard this. Some are providing software generated assessment tool, access to web sites, but some are providing online edition of print. Many of them have a student response system, a scanner, a laptop for the teacher, some have an LCD projector, and some have an interactive whiteboard, and some have all of those. Your math teachers may be selecting math materials and technology that will be introduced for free in schools. We need to be talking to our Math folks to find out what they are selecting. If your dept is not in close communication with Math Depts, you [tech dept] could be surprised. After math, the next area up for adoption is K-12 Reading/Language Arts. This is the largest area up for adoption…there is a lot of stuff that comes with that particular content area. Back in 2004, if enrollment growth continued, that the cost of those two proclamations could be a billion and half dollars. They are looking at technology as a more effective way to deliver instructional content. [this is great because it means that we will have to equip teachers and classrooms with technology…glad I submitted this, but would have been happier if we’d been listened to sooner] The perception is that schools see textbooks as free, they’re entitled to them. The constitution says that schools are entitled to them. But is this the best way of delivering economical materials? Is this economically viable and appropriate for kids? things change very quickly…so rhetoric is that we still have textbooks in classrooms that are older than children using them. They perceive that there is a lot of free content out there…you can prob teach using what’s available for free on the web. [they is legislature, I believe] We did not issue a proclamation 2006, but there will be a proclamation 2007 for elementary…proclamation 2008 for secondary, but none of the decisions have been made. We also know that the state auditors office has surveyed all the textbook coordinators in the state about how that operates…something is going to happen but we don’t know for sure what will happen. that’s for the upcoming session. The other thing we’re trying to look at is the possibility of online courses, review of instructional materials with online materials, possibility of online testing…put all those things together in an online environment, it’s going to have an impact at the state level and districts and how we plan for the future. There is going to be opportunities to talk through best practices and TEA will want to hear back from you. If one of those things is to step back and get out of the way, then we need to do some planning. This will be important to leverage the wisdom of those involved in day to day work to ensure that this is all beneficial. There is a lot of interest in expanding TIF from legislators, but they are also interested in going in different directions. Question from audience: What amount was TEA shooting for the Tech Allotment?It would cost almost $200 per student. The State Board wasn’t comfortable for that. They approved $50 for student for 07-08, and $60 for 08-09. Some legislators have proposals for increasing state allotment by $25 per year. Question: Any serious discussion regarding providing math/science teachers a raise to keep them?There has been talk of a special stipend and conversations are taking place around that. In the next few weeks, we’ll hear some more Textbook-credit pilot…what’s up with that? That pilot ended in 2004 so there’s no money involved. What has happened is that a bill was introduced to expand that pilot state-wide. [More was said, and I hope to share the digital recording of Anita’s presentation…. ] Technorati Tags: mguhlin, tcea, tcea2007
Source: feeds.feedburner.com

PCR 2006-05-10 #025
Who the hell is that introducing the show? Why, It’s Jeff announcing the show number and episode date. Read THIS POST for information about Jeff, why he’ll rock, etc… woot. …followed immediately by an intro from Tom of the FogView Podcast! Thank you! And then, we surprise the heck out of people who had not yet read the Podcheck Blog. We surprise them by introducing Jeff Oestreich (pronounced “A-Strike,” not “Ostrich”) It’s a helluva a show, with 11-month old Sophia making a guest appearance towards the end. It’s an awfully damn good show for being the first Podcheck v3.0. Read “New Episode #25 is Imminent ” for technical details on the production. ALL of the show notes in their excruciating detail after the jump…. =================== NEWS ID3 Podcast Magazine issues refund checks to print subscribers. But… they haven’t asked for the commission money back yet? Did we earn the commission by helping build their brand? Scott just does not know. ================== New logo for Podcasters/Podcasting - www.podcastlogo.com/ From Annik Rubens www.schlaflosinmuenchen.com/ : More than 3000 podcast-listeners from all over the world decided that the logo designed by Peter of the Lemotox-Podcast is the winner. It is a creative commons logo and nobody makes any money off it. I just hope that as many people as possible will wear it as a badge or t-shirt as conversation starters maybe then the way to the 100 million listeners is a little bit shorter! Have a look and download the logo for yourself: www.podcastlogo.com/ ================== Akamai adds podcasting platform to media delivery services Banking on a significant new business opportunity, Akamai Technologies has rolled out a podcasting platform and business model support infrastructure for podcasting. Big step in helping the corporation deliver podcasting. And isn’t it about time? ==================== For us little guys, the consumer-content-creators, both Flikr and YouTube are making it easier for you to upload and share your upskirt photos and videos: news.com.com/YouTube+offers+mobile+upload+service/2100-1025_3-6070527.html?tag=st_lh “The good thing about it is that you don’t have to go home to YouTube anymore,” said Steve Chen, one of the company’s founders and its chief technology officer. “People may not carry their digital cameras with them when they go out. But everybody carries their cell phone…I’m interested in seeing what kind of content this will produce.” …go ahead, take a moment, and imagine what kind of content they will produce. I predict a lot of videos of two dogs boinking, drunken diatribes, and personal porn. And for you cellphone shutterbugs, Nokia announced that at least three of their cellphones will be capable of uploading pictures to Flikr. The N73, N72, and N93 will all support Flickr uploading, resulting from a deal between Nokia and Yahoo. Verizon has been using a similar proprietary platform called “My Pix Place,” but the Nokia/Flickr deal sidesteps companies like Verizon and Sprint. Sure, Verizon and Sprint will continue to bill the cellphone owner for data transfer charges, but Verizon would really like to control your entire cellphone experience and keep you in their walled garden, and then charge you to smell their flowers. ==================== Another note: I don’t know if “Instant Publishing” is a good idea. Is it really a “good thing” to be able to instantly share a picture or a movie clip that you took with your cellphone with millions of people? I’ve personally witnessed the positive effects of technical barriers. For instance, say, maybe you’ve been at the bar and had a few drinks… You decide that maybe now is the time to “out” your gay cousin and proclaim your love and support for him, or apologize to your ex-girlfriend for giving her the clap. You shoot the video on the drive home. Before the YouTube deal, you would have left the video on your cell phone, crawled into bed, woke up the next morning, and wondered ‘what the hell was I thinking.’ NOW, all you have to do is press the “Send To YouTube” and… Congratulations! You’ve just drunk-dialed the entire world AND incriminated yourself for DUI. Thanks, YouTube! Maybe it’s OK for some things to remain difficult. Maybe you SHOULD have to pass a kind of technical Idiot Test before you’re allowed to do certain things. ==================== Speaking of legality in podcasting, you now have a brief reference guide that explains some of the legal issues related to podcasting. Specifically, trademark law, copyright law, and publicity rights: wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide “The purpose of this Guide is to provide you with a general roadmap of some of the legal issues specific to podcasting. EFF has produced a very practical and helpful guide for issues related to blogging generally (www.eff.org/bloggers/). This Guide is not intended to duplicate efforts by EFF, and in many cases refers you to that guide for where crossover issues are addressed. Our goal is to complement EFF’s Bloggers FAQ and address some of the standalone issues that are of primary relevance to podcasters, as opposed to bloggers.” As a podcaster, you will face many of the same legal questions that bloggers face. EFF’s Legal Guide to Blogging (www.eff.org/bloggers/) addresses many additional issues that you should consider. These include: rights related to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the Communications Decency Act (aka Section 230), on-line defamation, privacy, reporter’s privilege, media access, election law, and labor law. Licensed under the Creative Common’s Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Podcasting Legal Guide (wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide) 2006 Colette Vogele of Vogele & Associates, Mia Garlick of Creative Commons and the Berkman Center Clinical Program in Cyberlaw. This Guide was produced as part of the Non-Residential Fellowship Program of the Center for Internet & Society at Stanford Law School. Thanks WebPro News for this story: www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20060510TheLegalGuidetoPodcasting.html ==================== New Pocasting Markets (news from PRWeb): Podcasting for the Pharmaceutical Industry: The Newest Way to Reach Your Target Audience, is the subject of a White Paper published today by The Maxwell Group, a leading provider of pharmaceutical web conferences for continuing medical education, clinical research and direct-to-physician brand promotion. ==================== Scott: A new Vidcast Help Forum available at the Podcast Pickle www.podcastpickle.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6433ww.podcastpickle.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6433 ==================== Jeff: $10,000 Buys a Month of Ads on a Baby Hmm. A baby? Why stop there? 15 years ago, a friend had an idea of giving out free t-shirts with logo s on them to the city s homeless population. Jeff relays a story about how his friend gave branded t-shirts to the homeless. Send us your best “slogan” that should have been printed on those shirts, and win a used MP3OnCar MP-308 MP3 Player. Send your suggestions to show - at - podcheck.com Here are the details on the prize: This Back-up Q audio transmitter allows you to enjoy MP3 music in your car, without spending a lot of money to upgrade your stereo system. MP-308 uses FM radio frequency to transmit the MP3’s from any attached USB Drive device to the sound system in your car. Simply plug into the cigarette lighter outlet, and enjoy your music while driving.” ==================== Scott — Finally! Tivo announces commercials by subscription! www.zatznotfunny.com/2006-05/tivo-launches-product-watch-commercials-on-demand/ From www.zatznotfunny.com/ — May 8th, 2006 - As announced in November, TiVo is launching their targeted commercials service today. Wall Street Journal says: For the most part, the marketers won t run traditional 30-second TV commercials. Instead, they will offer longer ads that attempt to be more informative than typical commercials. The company representative at TiVo said: Blah blah blah - the Product Watch solution is another powerful example of — blah blah blah — lead the industry — blah blah blah - enable TV viewers to get commercial information - blah blah blah blah — TiVo is committed to creating advertising products that deliver real - blah blah blah — results — blah blah blah while at the same time enhancing - blah blah blah — subscribers. ==================== Nokia is working on a podcasting app for its S60 N Series smartphones. The initial release focuses on providing a mobile podcasting client that will be able to manual and automatic updates of podcasts over 3G or WLAN networks. However, Nokia plans to develop the application to be a mobile podcast publishing platform. The release date is expected to be sometime in July, and will be a free download. ============= From audio blogging tools to mobile video blogging tools: Nokia N-Series cells phones are making some noise in mobile content creation. phones get creative with the “Nokia Series NStudio” - an online community for mobile movies. Touting their ability to shoot and edit movies with Nokia products and production software, their PR campaign features short videos produced by some famous directors, including Gary Oldman. Nokia’s N93 phone, or as they call it, the Nokia N93 Multimedia Computer, takes 30 fps video and bundles with Adobe Premeiere Elements 2.0 for editing. Nokia plans to open a “flagship store” in Chicago on June 21, with a New York store in the “Fifth Avenue region” opening before the end of 2006, Nokia Director of Multimedia Computers David Watkins told PC Magazine today. Both stores will sell phones not available directly through US carriers. From www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1953830,00.asp - The N91 will play Windows Media format music and sync with Windows Media Player on PCs, but will not initially play protected songs purchased from online music stores. That capability will follow in a free software upgrade. The N91 will come to stores “soon.” By the way, three of Nokia’s cellphones, the N73, N72, and N93 will all support Flickr uploading, resulting from a deal between Nokia and Yahoo. And STILL, I, Scott, remain too cheap to spring for an $800 phone. Give me an Archos, a cellphone, and roll of duct-tape, and I’ll show you the ultimate combo device! ============= mobiBLU Intros Podcast-Enabled MP3 Players Podcast Ready and mobiBLU have announced the launch of what they are calling the “first podcast-enabled MP3 players.” Podcast Ready’s myPodder software resides on the player and works with a web-based podcast management system A myPodder-enabled 2GB mobiBlu Cube will be available in Target stores nationwide. mobiBLU’s latest MP3 player, the B153, comes with Podcast Ready’s myPodder podcast management software pre-installed. ================ Sledge from I Love Knights podcast will be interested in this, because he records some podcast audio with his Windows PocketPC device: From GeekZone.com - www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=6045 AcroDesign Technologies has released the AudioBay Podcasting application for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs. The program provides everything needed to publish a podcast from a Pocket PC. Within a few minutes, users can record a podcast episode using the Pocket PC s built-in recorder and upload it to the Web over a wireless Internet connection for immediate access by the public. Simple podcast creation Generates standard RSS 2.0 feeds Generates HTML interface Includes free hosting for 12 months Includes podcast reader Location-based podcast search ============= Recording Skype with MixCast Live? Special thanks to Dennis Duffner for falling on his sword to try to get that to work. He tried the information available here: mixcastlive.com/2005/02/14/how-to-record-a-skype-call/ …but didn’thave any luck. “When I tried the patch panel, I got the most ungodly pulsing noises. I deleted the patch cord and then went into Skype and unchecked the “let skype adjust my sound device settings” and I have my input, output and ringing set to my sound card.” Anyone have a link to more information? ================ Steve from the SG Show has been trying to record a telephone interview for his podcast. The absolute BEST way to do it yourself is to purchase a special telephone interface for around $500. Alternatively, you might try one of the telephone conference providers that are popping up for podcasters: GabCast.com - a neat telephone conference recording system and self-contained podcast creation system. The system allows you to call up via an 800# in the U.S., some other toll-free numbers inother places, and also via Gizmo Project, FreePBX, FreeWorld Dialuo, and Asterisk. Free accounts are available, having a maximum of 200 MB available. You also get 30 minutes of conference calling time to test the feature, but 30 minutes won’t get you very far becasue it is charged per minute per participant. You can buy more at the price of $0.10 per minute (again, that’s used up per participant). —————————— …another one very similar to that… PhoneBlogz is a new service, now in beta test mode, that lets users audio blog by phone to their own blogging application, on their own server ============ Jeff: Women’s International Podcasting Expo Announced The creators of International Podcasting Expo, an online “virtual expo”, have announced the Women’s International Podcasting Expo, to be held July 14-16, 2006. Show organizers have decided to offer unlimited access to the Virtual Expo Center Booths. Tickets will only be required for seminar and networking event attendance. An informational meeting for anyone interested in participating in the Women’s Podcasting Expo will be held on May 9th, 9pm EST in an online audio conference room (link). — OOPS - Too late! Expo Tickets are $20 through June 30th, $25 in July, and only during May, will include a free Expo CD. Information on exhibiting/sponsoring is available on the International Podcasting Expo site. Scott: Will that be held in SecondLife? ============ Jeff: NPR It turns out that NPR may be the leading podcaster of radio content and music in the country. Who knew? We counted 6 million downloads in the last month over 20 million since we launched in August, says NPR s Andi Sporkin (son of John Forkin and Jane Spoonin). NPR is the most prolific podcaster among media companies. ============ CONVERSATION SecondLife Discussion *********************** ..and then the technical glitch happened here. We fired the darn thing right back up and just kept going! *********************** Scott’s thoughts: “What SecondLife means to me” SecondLife is like a cross between an internet chat room and a junior high school dance. Bunch of avatars staing around looking at the floor or ceiling, muttering things like “hey.” “hey, man” “Cool place, huh?” “yeah, sure is. lol” SecondLife is like a 3D chat room with boobs. SecondLife is like the Chinese Food of social interaction. I can spend 5 hours interacting with people in the SecondLife world, but the minute I disconnect, I feel empty inside, and guilty that I just wasted 5 hours of my life when I could have been meeting and interracting with REAL people. SecondLife is like an internet chat room that only people with Attention Deficit Disorder would enjoy. Not only do you have to woory about walking, flying, standing, looking, pointing, touching, opening, taking, teleporting, attaching, detaching, wearing, and modifying, but you ALSO have to CHAT with chat messages. You damn near need a Cray super computer to run SecondLife, as my computer gobbles up almost a gigabyte of while I m playing it. =================== LISTENER e_MAIL! =================== E-mail from KDG: Hi Scott .you are not part of a podcast network according to your latest podcast. So let s create one at www.wwpodcast.com/ It s just a domain name I have and wish someone would use. You read one of my emails on air many months ago and it was cool. Thanks. kdg I have registered a couple of domain names, too. Most notably PodfaderAlley.com, but I simply don’t have the time that a 23 year old has. When I get crazy ideas, I sometimes forget that I have negative spare time. The number of hours of spare time in my life is measured using the imaginary number “i” ===================== Another e-mail from Micael: hey scott, just a note to say when heard your podcast and tried to find your site, i tried podcheckreview.com, oops not it, then i did a google search and found you 3rd on the list. podcheckreview.com is available, surf on over to godaddy.com register it and point it to your existing site. use promo code ‘radioshow’ for a 10% discount. before you ask, i learned of you from the david lawrence show. michael ===================== Audio voicemail from MetalMedic at PullingMyPod Podcast - (He and I apparently have a lot in common…) ====================== Frappr Shoutouts Oblivion, vocalist extraordinaire Karmyn Tyler, Brad P from NJ, Joe from Los Angleles, Mark Z from Sacremento, Paul Sabey from England, Shelly from Texas, Matt Armstead from Minneapolis, Lynne from Portland, porti from Munich, Owlboy, and you whom I did not mention (but might have been able to mention had I not stopped mentioning names to say what I just said!) voicemail: (206) 424-4763
Source: blog.podcheck.com

DRM: Digital Rights Restrictions - Richard Stallman Viewpoint: Video
Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is an all-too-pervasive means by which the manufacturers of hardware and software - including music and video - place restrictions upon the people that buy it from them. If you have ever downloaded a music track from iTunes, or a movie from Amazon Unbox, bought an audio book from Audible or tried to get your music collection back off an iPod, you have already come into contact with DRM. Photo credit: Ovidiu Predescu Effectively, DRM is a means of controlling and restricting how you listen to, watch or interact with your digital media. For one, it is designed to prevent you from sharing it with your friends, and for another it is kept in place to ensure that you do not tamper with, remix or in any way alter the digital content that you have purchased. In some cases you are restricted to accessing this media using a single device. Lose the device, lose the media. Increasingly, consumers are standing up and refusing to be treated like criminals by the people whose salaries they pay. While there are a growing number of ways to remove DRM from software they remain largely illegal, and perhaps the most effective stand that consumers can take against it is to boycott products that implement DRM altogether. In the second part of Robin Good’s exclusive interview with Free Software pioneer and founding member of Defective By Design Richard Stallman, they discuss the current status of DRM and the alternatives available to you as a consumer and producer of digital media. What is DRM, where can you find it in action, and what are the alternatives? Richard Stallman on DRM - with full transcript RG: Can we spend a few words on the status of DRM and your concern on activities around it? In line with Richard Stallman’s wishes, this video is also available to download in the Free Software Ogg Theora format Richard Stallman: DRM refers to Digital Restrictions Management. That s the practice of developing software specifically to restrict the users, where the program says I don t wanna show you this file I don t wanna let you copy part of this file I don t wanna print this file for You, cause you re no good. Literally the developers design the software to stop you from doing things. Microsoft does it, Apple does it, Adobe does it, Sony did it in a very nasty way and received a lot of criticism for it a year ago. It s therefore a temptation that many proprietary software developers face to put in malicious features. You can t tell in many cases whether a proprietary program has malicious features. Some kinds of malicious features are visible DRM is visible if the program refuses to let you do certain things, you can see that. If it spies on you, you may not be able to see that it s a different malicious feature. These malicious features are possible because of the fact that the developer has power over the users. If the users were in control, they would take out the malicious features. And with Free Software, that s what happens, except we never put them in because it would be like trying to rob a bank by pointing your finger at somebody and saying I ll shoot my finger at you . You know, its s going to be obvious that you can t and nobody s going to do anything but laugh. And so nobody even gets tempted to try to put malicious features into Free Software because they know that someone else will take them out. But with proprietary software, once the developers have power over the users they can put in anything they want, and the users can t change it. They re constantly faced with the idea of choosing the features to hurt the users and help themselves at the users expense. RG: What are the actions that we as individuals can take to stop some of this? In line with Richard Stallman’s wishes, this video is also available to download in the Free Software Ogg Theora format Richard Stallman: The main thing you can do to stop DRM is don t accept products with DRM. Don t use Apple iTunes, don t buy HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, don t buy ordinary DVDs unless you get a copy of the illegal Free Software that can play a DVD. I prefer simply not to get any DVDs that are encrypted, because that s a better solution from my point of view. So if you reject these things, and don t install Real Player or Windows Media Player on your machine these also implement DRM. If you care about freedom, then when someone asks you to give up your freedom for practical benefits, you ll say no. And ultimately that s what we depend on. But there s more you can do, if you want to spend some time opposing DRM go to DefectiveByDesign.org, which is the website of our protest campaign against DRM. We have had many public protests this year, on the DRM issue, and we are continuing to do so. The more people join the campaign, the more we will be heard. Photo credit: Defective By Design Defective By Design Defective By Design is both a well featured online resource and an organization determined to raise public consciousness as to DRM and assist them in living without it once and for all. In addition to bringing about international protests and direct action against DRM, Defective By Design also offer a growing list of DRM-Free products and services that consumers can use as alternatives to their DRM-restricted counterparts. In the following short video, we see one example of Defective By Design members taking their message to the street, and learn more about the ideas behind the organization and its issues with companies like Apple, who make heavy use of DRM in their iTunes and iPod products. This is one of many Anti-DRM protests carried out by Defective By Design. It took place at the San Francisco Apple Store in June of last year. The featured speakers are Henri Poole of DefectiveByDesign.org / CivicActions and Mike Linksvayer of Creative Commons. The Defective By Design website challenges the notion that DRM is necessary, and underlines the fact that it is used to maximize profits, while minimizing the control users have over the content they have paid for: ‘’Big Media describe DRM as Digital Rights Management. However, since its purpose is to restrict you the user, it is more accurate to describe DRM as Digital Restrictions Management. DRM Technology can restrict users access to movies, music, literature and software, indeed all forms of digital data. Unfree software implementing DRM technology is simply a prison in which users can be put to deprive them of the rights that the law would otherwise allow them. From Richard Stallman, President of the FSF: The motive for DRM schemes is to increase profits for those who impose them, but their profit is a side issue when millions of people s freedom is at stake; desire for profit, though not wrong in itself, cannot justify denying the public control over its technology. Defending freedom means thwarting DRM. ‘’ (Defective By Design, 2006) As a consumer you have the right not to buy software, music, video or electronic devices that treat you as a potential criminal regardless of your intentions. Exercise that right. ‘’So what is the alternative to DRM?'’ ‘’No DRM.'’ Further Resources: If you would like to read more about DRM, and the alternatives to this restrictive business model, the following web sites may be of interest: DefectiveByDesign.Org - A great resource and one way that you can get directly involved in the battle against DRM The Gripe Line Weblog in DRM’s defence Wikipedia on DRM - an extensive wikipedia entry on DRM Free Software Foundation - Richard Stallman’s surefire way to make sure you are DRM free: avoid proprietary software. Defective By Design’s Guide to DRM-Free products and services that deserve your custom Originally written by Michael Pick for Master New Media as: DRM: Digital Rights Restrictions - Richard Stallman Viewpoint: Video Interview
Source: www.masternewmedia.org

Keywords: Printing,Publishing,Graphic Design,Printing,Color Copies,Publishing