Blackmoor Vituperative

David Berlind, for one, is suffering from a recurring DRM nightmare, and it keeps getting worse. Depending on your point of view, DRM stands for Digital Rights Management or Digital Restrictions Management. David calls it C.R.A.P. — and warns that we should all be very afraid.

The bogeyman that haunts Ed Bott and so many other Windows users has been Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage. In Vista, this anti-piracy program will only get worse, warns Ed. “Technically, it’s not a kill switch, but it’s arguably a near-death experience for your PC.”

What other terrors has technology wrought? Ten troubling examples:

1. Malware tricks
2. 64-bit drivers
3. Web 2.0 insecurity
4. Honest consumers driven to piracy
5. Virtualized SOA
6. Microsoft Zune
7. Floating nuclear plant
8. The DMCA
9. Electronic voting
10. Traceable ‘PattyMail’

And there’s plenty more scary tech here….

(from ZDNet, Technology that gives us the creeps)

I call “DRM” the “Digital Rights Mafia”, because that’s just what the DRM-pushers are: corrupt sleazeballs who use force to control, coerce, and rip off honest citizens while subverting our legal system in order to line their own pockets. RIAA, MPAA, and legislators who vote for abominations like the DMCA are the new Tammany Hall. Voters and consumers need to wake up and get rid of these scumbags.