After careful consideration, MIT Libraries have cancelled a subscription to an online database that demands access is controlled by a Digital Rights Management plug-in. In a related story, authors are given guidance on retaining rights in their published work to allow reuse in teaching or deposit in Open archives.
The Open Access march moves on...
Meanwhile parts of the music industry are also emerging with a firm anti DRM stance, such as this story about Musicload and this open letter from Apple's Steve Jobs
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2 comments:
Very interesting. It's always seemed more sensible to me to harness and use the technology, rather than fighting it (which is basically what DRM does). Surely the industry can create products which will persuade people it's easier to buy legitimately than steal?
(Donald, Perth College Library)
Thats a good point about it having to be easy. And I agree that DRM just creates an ever spiralling technology 'fight', with industry v. hackers working ever harder to lock/unlock the content.
There are some moves towards making it at least possible to choose legal DRM-free music, such as this story about EMI offering high quality MP3s via iTunes, albeit at a higher price than standard tracks. Be interesting to see if this offers enough incentive to buyers.
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