If you are horrified by the Web Environment Integrity proposal by Google (#DRM for ads), stop using Chrome and switch to Firefox and block ads everywhere.
The only eyeballs left for Google to show ads are the ones protected by ad blockers. That’s the highest growth opportunity they have, and we cannot let them have it.
If you buy an #HP#printer and sign up for the optional HP Plus #service, you'll get a #firmware#update that will FORCE you to #purchaseonly new HP #ink cartridges — for the life of your printer. And once that firmware update happens, there is no way to undo it.
In one of the coolest and more outrageous repair stories in quite some time, three white-hat hackers helped a regional rail company in southwest Poland unbrick a train that had been artificially rendered inoperable by the train’s manufacturer after an independent maintenance company worked on it. The train’s manufacturer is...
My old e-reader had some problems and needed to be replaced. I ended up exploring the hell that is DRM (copy protection) on e-books and tried to break the restraints so I can read my own legally acquired books with FOSS software. I wrote a blog post on it that describes my frustrations (another ideological rant) but hopefully also helps others in a similar position with some practical guidance: https://proycon.anaproy.nl/posts/do-not-restrict-me/
(Of course, if you're not in the US, they've already made the choice for you. Thanks terrible international intellectual property laws!)
Until today, my experience buying #ebooks from Humble Bundle was they were always available unencumbered by #DRM. I have hundreds of #DRMFree#epubs built up over the past decade.
The #PratchettDiscworldHumbleBundle is through #Rakuten#Kobo's ebook shop, and all the books are encumbered by #Adobe and the #AdobeDigitalEdition DRM. There is zero indication that this DRM is included on the bundle page itself. and it explicitly says "Use on Any Device". On the #RakutenKobo page itself, the only indication the file has DRM is some small bottom-text that says "Download Options: EPUB 3 (Adobe DRM)".
Also, DRM Digital Editions will also "helpfully" install Norton for you as well. It's like the dogshit you just stepped in offered to stab you in the kidney, too.
This is shameful and disgusting from Humble Bundle. I know Humble Bundle got acquired years ago by IGN/Ziff Davis, but they'd avoided the levels of #enshittification to make me stop using them.
I just learned that libraries cannot purchase #Audible exclusives and I feel absolutely enraged. Then I found Libro.fm thanks to @pluralistic and I learned their #books are #DRM free, yours forever and a local bookstore of your choice receives part of your subscription or purchase. I tried their app and it is nicer, prettier and more user friendly than Audible, so I subscribed and picked #TheInternetCon to help seize the means of Computation ✊
In a response to a post from the AntiDRM Twitter account, Ubisoft Support has clarified that users who don’t sign in to their account can potentially lose access to Ubisoft games they’ve purchased. The initial post from AntiDRM featured a snippet of an e-mail sent to a user from Ubisoft notifying them that their account had...
Wow this is bad. Some Italian researchers decided there wasn't enough anti-right-to-repair hardware #DRM in the world already, and developed a way to physically profile and recognize individual battery cells that can be combined with classic DRM technologies to prevent non-OEM battery cells from working inside a device, even if the classic DRM portion is circumvented. Whyyyyyy?!
A nice article that should be shared more often to create more awareness on why #DRM harms everyone.
Earlier on I used to purchase ebooks via Amazon, and then use Calibre to strip off the DRM.
Then, after Amazon tried too hard to make life too hard for DRM strippers, I've decided to go the old pirate way all the way down.
Remember that piracy is way more ethical than giving your money to an intermediary parasite that turns a purchase into a rental, allows you to only access your purchase on very specific hardware and software, gives you no guarantee that you'll still be able to read your book in 10 years, and offers no way of gifting the book or passing it to your children.
And we also need more writers and artists who are aware of the issue. When I discovered that my computer vision book had been released on the Kindle store as well, DRM protected, I took the step of adding a line to the README Github repo used in the book, along the lines of "if you purchased a DRM-locked version of the book, please reach out to me to get an unlocked PDF or EPUB file". If Amazon goes down, I want my books to still be around.
DRM harms content creators as well, as it reduces the lifespan and distribution of our work and locks it into a specific platform.
When we're as surrounded by streaming platforms as we are now, it's easy to forget that the DRM-free life still exists. Even now, there are dozens of record labels, publishers, and online retailers that refuse to abuse their customers. Learn about them in the Guide: https://u.fsf.org/1lr#EndDRM#DRM
DRM ruins efforts at historical preservation. If all of our media is locked up in digital streaming platforms -- which will go under eventually -- how will it be preserved for future generations? Live DRM-free instead: https://u.fsf.org/1aj#EndDRM#DRM
#DRM isn't just an annoyance -- it's a violation of your right to use the items you own as you see fit. Learn more about our Defective by Design campaign at http://defectivebydesign.org, and follow our campaign account at @endDRM
#DRM isn't just an annoyance -- it's a violation of your right to use the items you own as you see fit. Learn more about our Defective by Design campaign at http://defectivebydesign.org
DRM ruins efforts at historical preservation. If all of our media is locked up in digital streaming platforms -- which will go under eventually -- how will it be preserved for future generations? Live DRM-free instead: https://u.fsf.org/1aj#EndDRM#DRM
DRM ruins efforts at historical preservation. If all of our media is locked up in digital streaming platforms -- which will go under eventually -- how will it be preserved for future generations? Live DRM-free instead: https://u.fsf.org/1aj#EndDRM#DRM
20 years ago, I got in a (friendly) public spat with #ChrisAnderson, who was then the editor in chief of @WIRED. I'd publicly noted my disappointment with glowing Wired reviews of #DRM-encumbered digital devices, prompting Anderson to call me unrealistic for expecting the magazine to condemn gadgets for their DRM:
They say "rights," we say "restrictions" #DRM are not for your digital /rights/, they are /restrictions/ imposed on you. Celebrate your own intellect by staying away from DRM. Learn more about DRM-free living at https://u.fsf.org/1aj
Awesome rant. @pluralistic gives free rein to his righteous anger. And it's a good overview of some examples of #DRM abuse, with Warner and Sony as the most recent example.
This year's #IDAD (International Day Against #DRM ) was marked with the news that #Sony - once again - decided to screw their customers over with DRM.
Yes, Sony's rootkit scandal was already 18 years ago, but if some of us still complain about it, it is because the lesson wasn't learned. The proof is that now, 18 years later, Sony keeps shipping products and "selling" them with DRM, for the obvious and inevitable purpose of restricting their users.
#DRM isn't just an annoyance -- it's a violation of your right to use the items you own as you see fit. Learn more about our Defective by Design campaign at http://defectivebydesign.org, and follow our campaign account at @endDRM
Polish Hackers Repaired Trains the Manufacturer Artificially Bricked. Now The Train Company Is Threatening Them (www.404media.co)
In one of the coolest and more outrageous repair stories in quite some time, three white-hat hackers helped a regional rail company in southwest Poland unbrick a train that had been artificially rendered inoperable by the train’s manufacturer after an independent maintenance company worked on it. The train’s manufacturer is...
Ubisoft Can Delete Inactive Accounts, Making Users Lose Access to Their Games (gamerant.com)
In a response to a post from the AntiDRM Twitter account, Ubisoft Support has clarified that users who don’t sign in to their account can potentially lose access to Ubisoft games they’ve purchased. The initial post from AntiDRM featured a snippet of an e-mail sent to a user from Ubisoft notifying them that their account had...