[Fsuk-manchester] Today: International Day Against DRM 2012 Manchester

[Michael Dorrington]

* Event: International Day Against DRM 2012 Manchester
      o http://dayagainstdrm.org/
      o http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Manchester/DayAgainstDRM2012
* Location: Starting at Madlab. (Manchester Digital Laboratory).
* Address: 36-40 Edge Street, Manchester. M4 1HN.
      o "(Between Thomas St and the Craft Centre,
          opposite A Bar Called Common)"
      o http://madlab.org.uk/
* Date: Friday, 4th May 2012
* Start time: 19:00 sharp (But will leave Madlab about 19:15)
* Finish time: 21:00

Details
-------

Friday, 4th May 2012 is International Day Against DRM.

DRM includes stopping you putting the Operating System you want on your
computer¹, see
<http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/statement>.

MFS are running a local event. We are meeting at Madlab at 7pm sharp (so
don't be late) on Friday, 4th May 2012. We will have a brief overview of
DRM and then we will go out around Manchester campaigning until about
9pm. Then to the pub for discussion.

¹ Of course, it is always about who has the keys and so the control.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Coalition against Digital Restrictions Management ready to go
for May 4th Day Against DRM
Date: Fri, 04 May 2012 00:10:44 -0400
From: Free Software Foundation <address@hidden>
Reply-To: Free Software Foundation <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>

## Coalition against Digital Restrictions Management ready to go for May
4th Day Against DRM

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, May 3, 2012 -- Defective by
Design will hold its annual International Day Against DRM
(<http://dayagainstdrm.org>) on Friday, May 4th, targeting the use of
Digital Restrictions Management on ebooks. Several other organizations
have joined to express their concern for the freedoms of authors and
readers, including Creative Commons, O'Reilly Media, No Starch Press,
the Accessible Computing Foundation, Libre Graphics Magazine, APRIL,
the Free Software Foundation and its sister organizations, FSF France
and FSF India.

Matt Lee, campaigns manager of Defective by Design, said, "DRM is a
growing problem in the area of ebooks, where people have had their
books restricted so they can't freely loan, re-sell or donate them,
read them without being tracked, or move them to a new device without
re-purchasing all of them. They've even had their ebooks deleted by
companies without their permission."

As part of the day, people fed up with DRM are holding protest and
awareness events in Cincinnati, Orlando, Amherst, San Francisco,
Boston, Madrid, Rome, Manchester, Nagoya (Japan), and Aveiro
(Portugal). More events are still being added at
<http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:DefectiveByDesign/Day_Against_DRM_2012>.

Supporters are also taking action online, displaying the campaign's
banner and using the opportunity to blog about their frustrations with
DRM.

Notable science fiction author and editor of the influential
BoingBoing.net blog, Cory Doctorow said, "As an author, I understand
that DRM doesn't do squat to protect my interests. As a
businessperson, I understand that DRM usurps my commercial
relationships with my customers and hands them to DRM vendors."

Sanders Kleinfeld, author of *HTML5 for publishers* said in an
interview with O'Reilly Media, "What's disappointing right now is that
Amazon is very set on their Mobi format for their Kindle device, Apple
has made strides away from EPUB 3 with their latest iBooks 2.0 and
iBooks Author. I think vendors that make these devices are interested
in maintaining that lock-in for customers."

Defective by Design has held previous international days against DRM
in 2006, 2010 and 2011, focusing on use of DRM by Microsoft, Apple,
Amazon, and the RIAA. Defective by Design is a campaign of the Free
Software Foundation.

Information on how to participate can be found at
<http://dayagainstdrm.org>. Pictures, videos, and accounts will be
posted afterward at <http://defectivebydesign.org>.

### About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to
promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and
redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and
use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating
system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free
software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and
political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites,
located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information
about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at
<http://donate.fsf.org>. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

### Media Contacts

Matt Lee
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1-617-500-3284
<address@hidden>

###
--
Follow us on identi.ca at http://identi.ca/fsf | Subscribe to our blogs
via RSS at http://fsf.org/blogs/RSS
Join us as an associate member at http://www.fsf.org/jf

Sent from the Free Software Foundation, 51 Franklin Street
Fifth Floor
Boston, MA 02110-1335
United States

-- 
FSF member #9429
http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=9429
http://www.fsf.org/about
"The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide
mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all
free software users."

signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature