[liberationtech] The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus supports the Electronic Frontier Foundation concerns regarding DRM in HTML5

[michael gurstein]

For Immediate Release

The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus supports the

Electronic Frontier Foundation concerns regarding DRM in HTML5

 

BERN & SUVA June 14 2013 - The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus
adopted a statement

this week supporting the formal objection lodged by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) to the

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) regarding the HTML Working Group's charter.

As explained in the EFF's objection (see link:
https://www.eff.org/pages/drm/w3c-formal-objectionhtml-

wg), the W3C's Working Group responsible for developing the next version of
HTML, a core

technology for the World Wide Web, has published a draft specification
regarding Digital Rights

Management (DRM), the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) specification. The
EFF objection seeks

to invalidate the HTML Working Group's mandate to develop DRM enabling
technologies, as specified

in the working group's charter - "supporting playback of protected content".

 

Much has been said about EME, especially since its advancement to First
Public Working Draft status

in May, 2012. Many worry about its impact on digital rights, access, fair
use, privacy and innovation.

Many have signified their concerns to the W3C, whether through letters,
petitions and discussions,

most notably on the various W3C mailing lists supporting communications of
this work. Most recently,

the EFF has filed a formal objection to tell the W3C that DRM has no place
in HTML. The Civil

Society Internet Governance Caucus (IGC) wishes to lend its voice to this
movement of protest.

 

The IGC believes that the inclusion of digital rights management (DRM) in
HTML5 has the potential

to stifle innovation and seriously compromise the rights of end users (see
statement:

http://igcaucus.org/igc-statement-drm-html5).

The IGC therefore calls on the W3C to stop work on the Encrypted Media
Extensions specification and

revise its decision to include this work in the HTML Working Group charter.

 

About the Internet Governance Caucus

The policies that shape the Internet impact not only the development of the
technologies themselves,

but also the realization of internationally agreed human rights, social
equity and interdependence,

cultural concerns, and both social and economic development. Our vision is
that Internet governance

should be inclusive, people centered and development oriented. Our
contributions to the various forums

relevant to Internet governance, will strive to ensure an information
society which better enables equal

opportunity and freedom for all.

Ends

Source : Norbert Bollow & Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro

Internet Governance Caucus

http://igcaucus.org/

coordinators at igcaucus.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/liberationtech/attachments/20130613/5e622fc1/attachment.html>