International Day Against DRM

There are two areas where the public awareness can be increased. First to push against crooked anticircumvention laws like DMCA 1201, and the second to actually vote with one's wallet by supporting DRM-free distributors and publishers and boycotting those who proliferate DRM.

It's very unfortunate, because I would love to spread the message.

Opposition to DRM can have two aspects, which are good to differentiate to understand the issue.

First reason is ethical. DRM as preemptive policing is insulting in treating all users as potential criminals by default. Its overreaching nature is unethical and as such should be opposed the same way you'd oppose something like police state approach to society.

Second reason is pragmatical. DRM always cripples digital products by reducing usability (To put it differently - DRM always gets in the way of the legitimate user).

There is also another set of reasons which are kind of in between the two above - security and privacy. DRM always can be viewed as security and privacy threat, because the very premise behind the DRM is not trusting the user, assuming all users are potential criminals. As such, DRM usually intends to monitor and limit users' activity, like any policing does, except that DRM does it in user's private digital space, on their hardware, in their systems and programs they run and etc. Since trust should be symmetrical, users should not trust any DRM and should view it as a security and privacy threat, especially since DRM implementation is usually some black box code and you have no clue what it can do. So viewing any DRM as potential malware is a good symmetrical approach to it treating all users as potential criminals (infringers).

I'd say out of these, ethical and security / privacy reasons are most important, while the issue of convenience is less so. However most people concentrate on the later and even came up with a term "DRM that doesn't get in your way". That's simply incorrect - DRM always reduces usability by limiting what you can do with digital product. That's one of the main points in it.

So DRM always gets in your way. Some DRM can be less apparent though, while another can be very much in the face. I'd say actually the first one is even worse (not like some would assume that DRM that doesn't bother their comfort can be acceptable). The reason is simple - if it's hidden and not apparent it must be even more sinister than one that's very obviously deterring your experience. It's like a hidden camera vs an open one. Hidden / "unobtrusive" DRM is worse because you don't pay attention to it and get comfortable with using it.

I'm terribly sorry for off-topic, but it really interests me. I've never seen OTR on IRC or XMPP except for private (one-to-one) conversations. Could you go into some details, please?

As far as I know, OTR only works with two parties talking in private. Is there a mature, cryptographer-vetted multiparty OTR protocol with ready-to-use desktop software implementations out there?

The properties that interest me are secure authentication, acceptable forward secrecy and deniable encryption. I.e. I want to be sure I'm chatting with my friends, and if they don't keep logs what was said would stay only between us and the only thing external observer could say is that we had exchanged some information.

I've been noticing this kind of disclosure becoming more commonplace, and it's beginning to bother me. No criticism at all of you: I'm sure you're trying to be ethical and ensure that there is no possibility that anyone might accuse you of a conflict of interest. I just wonder what purpose this serves. You offer a true, interesting, timely, and relevant bit of information. The fact that you work there doesn't change the nature of the information at all. Even if you got a commission on each book sold, which is unlikely, it still wouldn't change anything. O'Reilly's a great shop and this is great to know, in any case. So why this "disclosure"?

I'm not sure about dedicated reader devices (like with ink-screen or the like).

http://www.moondownload.com/

Obviously it all depends on personal reading preferences but my favorite reading devices are the backlit e-ink/e-paper devices.

- Tablets are heavy. You should be able to hold a reading device with one hand for a long time without an uncomfortable weight. - Tablets are battery hungry (even though this is usually not a big problem for me). - There's less distraction with a "reading-only" device.

I understand that you don't want to support Amazon (which rules out Kindle Paperwhite) or B&N (which rules out Nook GlowLight). In the past I used Sony PRS devices and I was very happy with them but I've never used the new ones such as the backlit PRS 700. Maybe something like PocketBook?

Have a look at this old HN discussion. There seems to be some good advice: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4682793

Kobo makes several very nice ereaders which support EPUB, MOBI, HTML, TXT, even CBR/CBZ out of the box. They technically support DRM through the books sold in their marketplace, but you never have to use that.

However, distributors who are in between end users and publishers have more influence. They voting with their wallets (by refusing to sell anything from publishers which require DRM) has way more significant impact on the publishers. That's why services like GOG are really positive game changers, while others like Netflix are making things only worse by obliging DRM sick publishers.

Of course my main hope is that if enough people demand DRM-free ebooks, they'll give up. So the first thing is to absolutely boycott DRM-laden books. Therefore I won't post the search URL here, ask the support for it, be noisy and state you're actively boycotting DRM :)