Students of Swarthmore plan to stand up against the use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection on audio CDs at the Tower Records store on South Street. The students claim DRM is putting unfair digital locks on CDs that restrict consumers from exercising their fair use rights under U.S. Copyright Law. DRM protected CDs limit the number of backups and how you may "rip the CD", which means DRM crippled in general, cannot be copied to an iPod music player.
The aim according to record companies is to reduce copyright infringement, something the students say simply isn't working. Free Culture co-founder and President Nelson Pavlosky said, "these sneaky DRM schemes endanger users and stop you from doing perfectly legal things like putting your music onto your iPod. It’s ridiculous; consumers don’t even know that they’re buying a broken record." The protest will take place Saturday, February 25th at noon at the Tower Records Store on South Street. It will continue into early afternoon. Free Culture wants to inform consumers of their fair use rights and warn them about the DRM threat.
"We need to get the word out about fair use rights," said co-founder Luke Smith. "No one wants to buy a broken record; if you’re not allowed to put it on your iPod, what exactly are you paying for? We want record companies to replace crippled CDs and pay for the damage they cause to their customers machines. We also want to drive the message home; you can’t do this anymore, because we’re watching you."
Source:
Free Culture Swarthmore
"We need to get the word out about fair use rights," said co-founder Luke Smith. "No one wants to buy a broken record; if you’re not allowed to put it on your iPod, what exactly are you paying for? We want record companies to replace crippled CDs and pay for the damage they cause to their customers machines. We also want to drive the message home; you can’t do this anymore, because we’re watching you."
Source:
Free Culture Swarthmore
