Published at LXer:

But the Free Software Foundation Europe argues it's not users that want DRM - it's record companies and the like.

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DRM should be called Denied Rights Management instead or maybe Digital Restricted Media.

I'll support DRM once RIAA and similar bozos recognize my rights under Fair Use to use the content on whatever devices I want. Until that happens, DRM is nothing more than pure, unmitigated greed.

So ... When Redhat, Suse, Linspire, Xandros, and other distros with mainstream aspirations include it in their kernels, ... Are you all going to boycott them?

Actually I think I might. The main culprit here are the content providers insisting on draconian DRM that, in my opinion, ignores the fundamental rights of consumers under Fair Use. I view Microsoft as culpable since they are going along with this nonsense without insisting on support for consumer's rights. If Linux distros go down this path, then I would view them as just as culpable. However, given the nature of Linux, I would expect that a DRM free distro would surface in short order, or some very acceptable distros never go down that road in the first place.

I guess one of my main issues with DRM is that I view it as a very short step between DRM and Trusted Computing which I see as profoundly evil. I mean, if you have already given away your rights to the fair use of the content you purchase, does it really hurt any more to give up any and all rights to the software that runs on your computer or to the content that you generate?

I'ld boycott them too. The beauty about open source software is you can always exclude DRM. Would you buy a car that is able to shut down, reduce speed to 1/10th or refuse to turn left because you didn't pay to use a particular road or license a new radio? That's what DRM would do. You lose full control of your computer.

I agree, I think everything's getting out of proportion with DRM. If they charged a reasonable price for a new DVD/CD then people wouldn't be so keen to copy them and there would be no real need for DRM. They're just too money hungry, the rich want to get richer and we all have to suffer as a result. I say we 'have' to because no doubt before long someone, somewhere **cought** America **cought** will pass some law saying it's illegal to have a machine without DRM.

This DRM stuff really bugs me, but what bugs me even more is how people just seem to accept that it should happen, or it's going to happen, without questioning why!