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06/12/2006, 12:45pm, EDT

Monday, June 12th

Protestors zero in on Apple stores

Protestors over the weekend gathered at eight Apple Stores across the U.S. to inform the public about the company's Digital Rights Management (DRM) scheme. Participants wore brightly-colored Hazardous Materials (HazMat) suits, marching or standing outside the stores holding signs and giving away informational flyers. DefectiveByDesign announced plans last Friday to gather in San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Long Island, and New York to warn customers of the dangers of DRM in Apple's iPod/iTunes. Protests took place between 10:00 a.m. and noon, with participants arguing that it is unreasonable that purchasers of music on iTunes are not allowed to resell music once they are finished with it as they could with physical media, according to a report by Digital-Lifestyles.info.


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pjdesign
Get a F***ing Life
0
06/12, 1:03pm, EDT
Seriously now.
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eldarkus
Protest..
0
06/12, 1:53pm, EDT
poverty, war, hunger, energy.. and they pick DRM? LOL!!! well, I guess we shouldnt expect much from a load of stupid college students. Thinking is not thier top priority!
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broohaha22
reply
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06/12, 8:43pm, EDT
People have to pick their battles and choose what they feel they can bring awareness to a cause they feel strongly about. I give them credit for at least getting off their butts to protest over something they strongly believe is bad for us. Can I assume you have similarly strong convictions about something?

DRM is loaded with consequences far beyond iTunes music purchases. Hopefully those protesters are aware of that and are doing a better job at conveying that message to the public beyond what we picked up in this article.

For good reading on this stuff, look into "The Future of Ideas" and "Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity" by Lawrence Lessig. (www.lessig.org)
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Resell?
0
06/13, 7:51am, EDT
I think we are missing the point here. Who resells the music they brought on iTunes or any other download site and then deletes it off their hard-drive? It's just stupid. I bet they all have iPods and use them everyday. Has anyone told them that they can actually buy CDs still? No one forces you to buy off iTunes. What is the world coming to. Point taken Broohaha but I don't think they actually looked that much into it.
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::maroma::
NERDS!
0
06/13, 11:41am, EDT
Buncha dumbass nerds need to find something more important to protest about. I'm sorry, but DRM isn't killing anyone. It isn't destroying anyone's lives. It only effects the people who are fortunate (wealthy) enough to own an iPod and are able to purchase music from iTunes.

Get a life NERDS!
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broohaha22
troll!
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06/13, 12:25pm, EDT
maroma, I call troll on your post. But I'll bite. DRM may not have destroyed anyone's lives yet, but it can seriously affect how you live depending on what you do for a living. Consider this short list of examples (pros and cons to DRM):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management#Controversies.2C_consequences.2C_and_examples

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typ993
Suspicious...
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06/13, 1:25pm, EDT
These protests look a little too organized and slick to be a bunch of random protesters. And the fact that it is focused on Apple really pegs the BS meter. Why not DRM in general, like Micro$oft's?

Or is this really just a front group funded by Micro$oft in yet another futile attempt to slow down the iPod juggernaut?
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::maroma::
re: troll!
0
06/13, 1:46pm, EDT
No trolling here. Just stating the obvious. Sorry to say it, but DRM just isn't that big of a deal. And the only reason those nerds singled out Apple is because Apple is in the news. Apple's DRM is as harmless as they come. And anyone who knows anything about Apple knows that the only reason Apple has that DRM is because of the record companies. So if you want to waste your time protesting DRM, do it in front of the offices of the record companies.
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