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

Razer rayzer at riseup.net
Thu Nov 10 19:39:39 PST 2016


On 11/10/2016 03:14 PM, Mr Harkness quoted some schmuck:


> Twenty-five years ago, Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.

I've seen this claim about a number of different people and you know?
It's about as ignorant a thing to say as I can imagine. One person
inventing the WWW... ROTF!

MAYBE the TERM "WWW".

Rr


> ----- 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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