25
April
2013
|
06:25 AM
America/Los_Angeles

The Dark Side Of HTML5 - DRM Open Web Betrayal

Hollyweb

The Free Culture Foundation is warning that Google, Microsoft, Netflix, and giant Hollywood music and movie companies, are pushing for an extension to the  HTML5 standard that will give them control over who can access web content.

They are backing a proposal to include Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), within the HTML5 standard. It's a digital rights management (DRM) technology that has no place in HTML5 because it undermines the purpose of the W3C standard, says FreeCulture.org:


DRM in HTML5 is a betrayal to all Web users and undermines the W3C's self-stated mission to make the benefits of the Web "available to all people, whatever their hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture, geographical location, or physical or mental ability." 


The move would legitimize proprietary plugins from companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, and others, as HTML5 standards, when one of the goals of HTML5 is to remove the need for proprietary plugins.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposes EME:


It would be a terrible mistake for the Web community to leave the door open for Hollywood's gangrenous anti-technology culture to infect W3C standards. It would undermine the very purposes for which HTML5 exists: to build an open-ecosystem alternatives to all the functionality that is missing in previous Web standards, without the problems of device limitations, platform incompatibility, and non-transparency that were created by platforms like Flash.


Defend the Open Web: Keep DRM Out of W3C Standards | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Vote against EME: Tell W3C: We don't want the Hollyweb | Defective by Design

About Free Culture Foundation:

"The mission of the Free Culture Foundation is to undo the exploitation enabled by private ownership of technology, media, and communication networks. Our members work locally and globally through targeted campaigns, public education, and policy advocacy in areas including:

- Promote the advancement free software, free formats, & free cultural works
- Raise critical consciousness around technology and intellectual property
- Campaign and defend against significant technological and legal threats to privacy and autonomy
- Network within the free culture movement and build coalitions with other anti-oppression groups
- Organize the development of high-priority projects that support our mission."