So what can you do about it?
The first thing you must do is educate yourself on the different forms of DRM in your electronics and media today. Make sure you know what you are buying and don’t take the word of a 16 year old that works at Best Buy as law. If it is digital, chances are there is some form of DRM on it. Since money is the only language that these companies speak, you need to tell them how you feel with you pocket book. Stop buying into DRM and like technologies. Stop supporting those that want to control everything you own. Stop using iTunes. If you absolutely need to have a movie or CD, buy them used. Stop giving money to companies that peddle this garbage. In other words, stop helping proliferate DRM.
The next thing you can do is keep up to date on bills, laws, and legislation that will affect how, when, and where you use your media. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a watchdog group designed to do just that. You can keep up to date on what they are doing at www.eff.org.
Get involved and write your Congressmen/women. You can email them. You can snail-mail them. You can call them. Either way, your voice must be heard. To find out who your Senator is go here:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm. To find out who your local Representative is go here:
http://www.house.gov/writerep. Write them and tell them what you think of big companies controlling what, when, where, and how you use media you legally purchased.
I try to keep up to date with current issues, developments, and stories around the world on my website. I also have a lot of information about what has happened in the past and what could happen in the future. I try to consolidate a lot of this information for you from as many sources as I can. I am also not one of those people that reads something in one place and then write up my opinion. Take the "self-destruct" code built into the new HD-DVD players. I couldn't believe that this was actually true so I spent about 5 hours researching and reading different articles about it. You can see for yourself in my blog how many sources I have and the conclusions I have drawn from all of those sources. I do my best to give you the most accurate picture from the point of view of someone who opposes DRM. Bottom line is that nothing will happen if you do nothing. Get as involved as you want but just get involved.
Here are some good references and sites that have a lot of information on the subject:
http://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management
http://digitalconsumer.org
http://www.chillingeffects.org
Bruce Sterling from wired.com says “You may not be interested in the digital rights war, but that doesn't mean you'll have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines. Because the other side is very, very interested in you.” This is pretty scary stuff and sooner or later you will have no choice.
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