[info at fsf.org: He invented the Web. Would he give up on free standards?]

Thu Nov 10 15:14:48 PST 2016

----- Forwarded message from "Zak Rogoff, FSF" <info at fsf.org> -----
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2016 16:09:55 -0500
From: "Zak Rogoff, FSF" <info at fsf.org>
Reply-To: "Zak Rogoff, FSF" <info at fsf.org>
Subject: He invented the Web. Would he give up on free standards?

Dear Mr Zenaan Harkness,

The chief arbiter of Web standards, Tim Berners-Lee, has an important
choice to make this week. He must decide whether or not to allow media
and technology companies to add socially harmful [Digital Restrictions
Management (DRM)][1] into the technical capabilities of the Web, with
a proposal called [Encrypted Media Extensions][2] (EME). The companies
are currently asking for Berners-Lee's seal of approval to move EME to
the next phase of standardization: a Proposed Recommendation of the
[World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)][3].

[1]: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management
[2]: https://www.w3.org/TR/encrypted-media
[3]: https://www.w3.org

Twenty-five years ago, Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. Back
then timbl -- as he's known online -- declined opportunities to lock
down his creation and established himself as an advocate for a
freedom-affirming, interoperable, and universally accessible World
Wide Web. Now he's considering turning his back on this vision to make
Netflix, Google, Apple, and Microsoft happy.

**We have just days to convince Tim Berners-Lee to choose freedom for
  the Web and block Encrypted Media Extensions from becoming an
  official standard. Repeat the [GNU social][4] and [Twitter][6]¹
  messages from our anti-DRM campaign, asking Tim a simple question:
  #WhatWouldTimblDo?  Would the Web's once idealistic inventor really
  give up on free standards?**

[4]: https://status.fsf.org/notice/189277
[6]: https://mobile.twitter.com/endDRM/status/796475563204550656

Not in to social media? You can also take action by [sending in a
selfie against DRM in Web standards][7] or [signing our petition][8].

[7]: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/selfie-against-drm-in-web-standards
[8]: https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=183&reset=1

### Some background

Big media owners, like the movie studios represented by the [MPAA][9]
and the music labels represented by the [RIAA][10], feel threatened by
the sharing that digital technology enables. Since the '90s, they've
poured bottomless resources into locking down not just the Web but
physical devices as well. One of their favorite tools is DRM --
digital handcuffs that limit what people can do with media.

[9]: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/topic/mpaa
[10]: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/topic/riaa

These companies have never cared that DRM denies users the right to
control their computers, or that it causes huge collateral damage by
[opening security holes][11], restricting cultural creativity, and
[limiting accessibility for the disabled][12]. In fact, they've even
had laws like the [Digital Millenium Copyright Act][13] passed, to
give DRM special status that makes it illegal to circumvent. More
recently, companies that stream media, like Netflix and Google, have
forged distribution deals with media giants. These lucrative
relationships are an incentive to join the labels in their quest for
control.

[11]: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/ten-years-after-sony-rootkit
[12]: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/disabling-the-disabled
[13]: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/DMCA-exemptions-process-anti-circumvention

In 2013 Berners-Lee surprised the world by allowing some of the
companies that use DRM -- namely Netflix, Apple, Google, and Microsoft
-- to start developing their latest project within the walls of the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the official Web standards
organization led by Berners-Lee. Their project, EME, is a universal
DRM system for the Web. The choice Berners-Lee faces now is whether or
not to allow EME to reach the "maturity level" of a Proposed W3C
Recommendation, indicating he feels it is ready to become an official
standard and passing it to the W3C's Advisory Committee for
ratification.

This is the first time that Berners-Lee and the W3C have considered
including DRM in Web standards. Berners-Lee seems to be hoping that
the big media companies will accept EME and use it to make DRM cheaper
and easier for streaming video, then leave the free Web alone. But
history shows us the exact opposite. DRM has to keep spreading to new
platforms and formats to maintain control over users, and its owners
have no reason not to use their massive power and money to continue
integrating it into more elements of the Web. Indeed, there are
murmurs about adding DRM to [text][14] and [image][15] standards,
which would be energized by the ratification of EME. EME foreshadows a
future Web that is riddled with DRM, where the freedom and
transparency of the system (like viewing source HTML in a browser)
will be gradually phased out.

[14]: http://idpf.org/epub-content-protection
[15]: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/10/theres-no-drm-jpeg-lets-keep-it-way

### We won't give up on the Web

Berners-Lee still has a chance to say no to EME and keep the W3C on
the right side of history. There is a real possibility that he might
-- he's [recently weakened his support for EME][16]. If he does reject
it, he will be congratulated by the community of technologists that
work in the public interest -- figures like security expert [Bruce
Schneier][17] and MIT Media Lab director [Joi Ito][18] have been very
clear that they want a Web without DRM, and more than 34,000 people
sent the same message through [petition signatures][19]. All timbl has
to do is remember his original vision for the Web, and block EME from
moving forward through the W3C standards-setting process.

[16]: https://defectivebydesign.org/blog/tim_bernerslee_just_gave_us_opening_stop_drm_web_standards
[17]: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/01/fighting_drm_in.html
[18]: https://boingboing.net/2016/03/13/joi-ito-on-drm-the-world-wide.html
[19]: https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=183&reset=1

**Head to [GNU social][4] or [Twitter][6]¹, and remind Tim Berners-Lee
  of his original vision for the Web.**

[4]: https://status.fsf.org/notice/189277
[6]: https://mobile.twitter.com/endDRM/status/796475563204550656

¹: We recommend free software-based, decentralized microblogging
services like GNU Social and Pump.io over Twitter ([read more][20]).

[20]: https://www.fsf.org/twitter

Zak Rogoff  
Campaigns Manager

*Read online: <https://defectivebydesign.org/blog/tim_bernerslee_created_sold_out_web>*

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