Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Tell W3C: We don't want the Hollyweb

Stop the Hollyweb! No DRM in HTML5.
Dear ,
Hollywood is at it again. Its latest ploy to take over the Web? Use its influence at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to weave Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) into HTML5 — in other words, into the very fabric of the Web. Millions of Internet users came together to defeat SOPA/PIPA, but now Big Media moguls are going through non-governmental channels to try to sneak digital restrictions into every interaction we have online. Giants like Netflix, Google, Microsoft, and the BBC are all rallying behind this disastrous proposal, which flies in the face of the W3C's mission to "lead the World Wide Web to its full potential."
We're not going to let this happen. Sign the petition to help us reach 50,000 signers by May 3rd, the International Day Against DRM.
On May 3rd, we'll deliver your signatures to the W3C in an eye-catching stunt that's sure to make headlines and make it impossible for the W3C to keep pretending this isn't a big deal.
Some have mistakenly thought this proposal would finally end the use of proprietary browser plugins like Silverlight and Flash. In reality, this would only make it easier for companies to achieve the same purpose via hooks in HTML itself. The difference would only be on paper; in practice, users would experience the very same unethical restrictions, platform incompatibilities, and device limitations as with proprietary browser plugins.
In addition to signing, you can:
  • Build momentum: use this page to share the petition far and wide.
  • If you have a Web site, paste in this code to embed our Hollyweb image as a link to the petition:
    <a href="http://www.defectivebydesign.org/no-drm-in-html5"><img src="//static.fsf.org/nosvn/dbd/drm_to-do-share.png" alt="Stop the Hollyweb! No DRM in HTML5." /></a>
If you want to learn more about the myths around this issue, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has an excellent write-up which covers all of the misleading discussion around the proposal and how, no matter what platform or browser you use, this puts the Web as we know it at stake. Read it here.
Thanks for speaking up,
John, Libby, Zak, and Kyra
You can read and share the online version of this message at http://www.defectivebydesign.org/we-dont-want-the-hollyweb.

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