Tim Berners-Lee Sells Out His Creation: Officially Supports DRM In HTML

from the this-is-bad dept

For years now, we've discussed the various problems with the push (led by the MPAA, but with some help from Netflix) to officially add DRM to the HTML 5 standard. Now, some will quibble with even that description, as supporters of this proposal insist that it's not actually adding DRM, but rather this "Encrypted Media Extensions" (EME) is merely just a system by which DRM might be implemented, but that's a bunch of semantic hogwash. EME is bringing DRM directly into HTML and killing the dream of a truly open internet. Instead, we get a functionally broken internet. Despite widespread protests and concerns about this, W3C boss (and inventor of the Web), Tim Berners-Lee, has signed off on the proposal. Of course, given the years of criticism over this, that signoff has come with a long and detailed defense of the decision... along with a tiny opening to stop it.

There are many issues underlying this decision, but there are two key ones that we want to discuss here: whether EME is necessary at all and whether or not the W3C should have included a special protection for security researchers.

First, the question of whether or not EME even needs to be in HTML at all. Many -- even those who dislike DRM -- have argued that it was kind of necessary. The underlying argument here is that certain content producers would effectively abandon the web without EME being in HTML5. However, this argument rests on the assumption that the web needs those content producers more than those content producers need the web -- and I'm not convinced that's an accurate portrayal of reality. It is fair to note that, especially with the rise of smart devices from phones to tablets to TVs, you could envision a world in which the big content producers "abandoned" the web and only put their content in proprietary DRM'd apps. And maybe that does happen. But my response to that is... so what? Let them make that decision and perhaps the web itself is a better place. And plenty of other, smarter, more innovative content producers can jump in and fill the gaps, providing all sorts of cool content that doesn't require DRM, until those with outdated views realize they're missing out. Separately, I tend to agree with Cory Doctorow's long-held view that DRM is an attack on basic computing principles -- one that sets up the user as a threat, rather than the person who owns the computer in question. That twisted setup leads to bad outcomes that create harm. That view, however, is clearly not in the majority, and many people admitted it was a foregone conclusion that some form of EME would move forward.

The second issue is much more problematic. A bunch of W3C members had made a clear proposal that if EME is included, there should be a covenant that W3C members will not sue security researchers under Section 1201 of the DMCA should they crack any DRM. There is no reason not to support this. Security researchers should be encouraged to be searching for vulnerabilities in DRM and encryption in order to better protect us all. And, yet, for reasons that no one can quite understand, the W3C has rejected multiple versions of this proposal, often with little discussion or explanation. The final decision from Tim Berners-Lee on this is basically "sure a covenant not to sue would have been nice, and we think companies shouldn't sue, but... since this wasn't raised at the very beginning, we're not supporting it":

We recommend organizations involved in DRM and EME implementations ensure proper security and privacy protection of their users. We also recommend that such organizations not use the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and similar laws around the world to prevent security and privacy research on the specification or on implementations. We invite them to adopt the proposed best practices for security guidelines [7] (or some variation), intended to protect security and privacy researchers. Others might advocate for protection in public policy fora – an area that is outside the scope of W3C which is a technical standards organization. In addition, the prohibition on "circumvention" of technical measures to protect copyright is broader than copyright law's protections against infringement, and it is not our intent to provide a technical hook for those paracopyright provisions.

Given that there was strong support to initially charter this work (without any mention of a covenant) and continued support to successfully provide a specification that meets the technical requirements that were presented, the Director did not feel it appropriate that the request for a covenant from a minority of Members should block the work the Working Group did to develop the specification that they were chartered to develop. Accordingly the Director overruled these objections.

This is unfortunate. What's bizarre is that the supporters of DRM basically refuse to discuss any of this. Even just a few days ago, the Center for Democracy and Technology proposed a last-ditch "very narrow" compromise to protect a limited set of security and privacy researchers (just those examining implementations of w3C specifications for privacy and security flaws.) Netflix flat out rejected this compromise saying that it's "similar to the proposal" that was made a year ago. Even though it's not. It was more narrowly focused and designed to respond to whatever concerns Netflix and others had.

The problem here seemed to be that Netflix and the MPAA realized that they had enough power to push this through without needing to protect security researchers, and just decided "we can do it, so fuck it, let's do it." And Tim Berners-Lee -- who had the ability to block it -- caved in and let it happen. The whole thing is a travesty.

Corry Doctorow has a thorough and detailed response to the W3C's decision that pushes back on many of the claims that the W3C and Berners-Lee have made in support of this decision. Here's just part of it:

We're dismayed to see the W3C literally overrule the concerns of its public interest members, security experts, accessibility members and innovative startup members, putting the institution's thumb on the scales for the large incumbents that dominate the web, ensuring that dominance lasts forever.

This will break people, companies, and projects, and it will be technologists and their lawyers, including the EFF, who will be the ones who'll have to pick up the pieces. We've seen what happens when people and small startups face the wrath of giant corporations whose ire they've aroused. We've seen those people bankrupted, jailed, and personally destroyed.

This was a bad decision done badly, and Tim Berners-Lee, the MPAA and Netflix should be ashamed. The MPAA breaking the open internet I can understand. It's what that organization has wanted to do for over a decade. But Netflix should be a supporter of the open internet, rather than an out and out detractor.

As Cory notes in his post, there is an appeals process, but it's never been used before. The EFF and others are exploring it now, but it's a hail mary process at this point. What a shame.

Filed Under: circumvention, copyright, dmca, drm, eme, html, html 5, research, security, tim berners-lee
Companies: mpaa, netflix, w3c

The Codification Of Web DRM As A Censorship Tool

from the exceptions-that-create-a-rule dept

The ongoing fight at the W3C over Encrypted Media Extensions -- the HTML5 DRM scheme that several companies want ensconced in web standards -- took two worrying turns recently. Firstly, Google slipped an important change into the latest Chrome update that removed the ability to disable its implementation of EME, further neutering the weak argument of supporters that the DRM is optional. But the other development is even more interesting -- and concerning:

Dozens of W3C members -- and hundreds of security professionals -- have asked the W3C to amend its policies so that its members can't use EME to silence security researchers and whistleblowers who want to warn web users that they are in danger from security vulnerabilities in browsers.

So far, the W3C has stonewalled on this. This weekend, the W3C executive announced that it would not make such an agreement part of the EME work, and endorsed the idea that the W3C should participate in creating new legal rights for companies to decide which true facts about browser defects can be disclosed and under what circumstances.

One of the major objections to EME has been the fact that, due to the anti-circumvention copyright laws of several countries, it would quickly become a tool for companies to censor or punish security researchers who find vulnerabilities in their software. The director of the standards body called for a new consensus solution to this problem but, unsurprisingly, "the team was unable to find such a resolution." So the new approach will be a forced compromise of sorts in which, instead of attempting to carve out clear and broad protections for security research, they will work to establish narrower protections only for those who follow a set of best practices for reporting vulnerabilities. In the words of one supporter of the plan, it "won't make the world perfect, but we believe it is an achievable and worthwhile goal."

But this is not a real compromise. Rather, it's a tacit endorsement of the use of DRM for censoring security researchers. Because the argument is not about to what degree such use is acceptable, but whether such use is appropriate at all. It's not, but this legitimizes the idea that it is.

Remember: it's only illegal to circumvent DRM due to copyright law, which is not supposed to have anything to do with the act of exploring and researching software and publishing findings about how it functions. On paper, that's a side effect (though obviously a happy and intentional side effect for many DRM proponents). The argument at the W3C did not start because of an official plan to give software vendors a way to censor security research, but because that would be the ultimate effect of EME in many places thanks to copyright law. Codifying a set of practices for permissible security disclosures might be "better" than having no exception at all in that narrow practical sense, but it's also worse for effectively declaring that to be an acceptable application of DRM technology in the first place. It could even make things worse overall, arming companies with a classic "they should have used the proper channels" argument.

In other words, this is a pure example of the often-misunderstood idea of an exception that proves a rule -- in this case, the rule that DRM is a way to control security researchers.

Of course, security research isn't the only thing at stake. Cory Doctorow was active on the mailing list in response to the announcement, pointing out the significant concerns raised by people who need special accessibility tools for various impairments, and the lack of substantial response:

The document with accessibility use-cases is quite specific, while all the dismissals of it have been very vague, and made appeals to authority ("technical experts who are passionate advocates for accessibility who have carefully assessed the technology over years have declared that there isn't a problem") rather than addressing those issues.

How, for example, would the 1 in 4000 people with photosensitive epilepsy be able to do lookaheads in videos to ensure that upcoming sequences passed the Harding Test without being able to decrypt the stream and post-process it through their own safety software? How would someone who was colorblind use Dankam to make realtime adjustments to the gamut of videos to accommodate them to the idiosyncrasies of their vision and neurology?

I would welcome substantive discussion on these issues -- rather than perfunctory dismissals. The fact that W3C members who specialize in providing adaptive technology to people with visual impairments on three continents have asked the Director to ensure that EME doesn't interfere with their work warrants a substantive reply.

For the moment, it doesn't look like any clear resolution to this debate is on the horizon inside the W3C. But these latest moves raise the concern that the pro-DRM faction will quietly move forward with making EME the norm (Doctorow also questioned the schedule for this stuff, and whether these "best practices" for security research will lag behind the publication of the standard). Of course, the best solution would be to reform copyright and get rid of the anti-circumvention laws that make this an issue in the first place.

Filed Under: browsers, drm, eme, exceptions, html 5, research, security
Companies: google, w3c

Designer Still Pursuing Bogus Takedown Of Periodic Table Of HTML Elements; Has No Idea How Copyright Works

from the Australia:-land-of-IP-thieves,-pop.-2 dept

Very recently, we covered designer Alara Mills' wholly misguided takedown efforts against Mike Riethmuller, a coder who crafted a periodic table of HTML 5 elements that she claimed looked like hers. Here's Riethmuller's:

Which was inspired by Josh Duck's earlier effort:


Neither of which look like the HTML 5 table Alara Mills sells:


But she claims Duck's (and consequently, Riethmuller's) infringes on this earlier version, which was the subject of a lawsuit she brought against Duck.


The suit was dismissed. Duck settled rather than fight Mills' baseless claims, which included the unsupported accusation that somehow Duck had intercepted her original version -- which she had emailed to someone else entirely -- and used that to craft his version. From the cease-and-desist order, in which her lawyers don't sound too sure about the theory their client is pushing:

Ms. Mills submitted an earlier version of her chart within a book prospectus to a publisher in July 29, 2010, a copy of which is enclosed. This is the version that was possibly leaked to you in creation of your Periodic Table.

Using this "win" (she voluntarily dismissed the suit with prejudice), she's now pursuing Riethmuller over his Duck-inspired version -- not because it looks like her current version, but because it looks like the unreleased version Duck supposedly infringed on.

When I wrapped up the last post, I noted that Mills had apologized to Riethmuller and withdrawn her legal threats. Apparently, that move was just PR-related. Mills had no intention of dropping her baseless claims against Riethmuller. The same night that post went live (with the final "good news" added to it), she reversed course. Mills has filed a followup complaint to Github in hopes of expediting the removal of Riethmuller's HTML 5 table.

Here's her original takedown request, which spends as much time on claims of "owning" common elements like Mendeleev's periodic table design and coding constants as it does espousing conspiracy theories and mangling IP terminology. [Interrupted periodically for commentary.]

I, Alara Mills, have read and understand GitHub's Guide to Filing a DMCA Notice.

1.     Identify the copyrighted work you believe has been infringed.
The copyrighted work I believe is infringed is my copyright in the 2-D artwork titled “The HTML Table of Elements.” The copyright is registered with the United States Copyright Office with an effective date of registration of January 27, 2010 and registration number VAu 1-014-116. “The HTML Table of Elements” is my original, United States copyrighted artwork. It is an original work inspired by the Periodic Table of Elements from chemistry that I first sketched out on paper December 25, 2009. The HTML Elements within my chart are placed in my own unique categories. It is this unique ordering that took it out of fair use and thereby made it eligible for copyright. (Author's unique ordering of HTML5 Elements within their literary books is also what makes them unique for copyright.)

[You can't take something "out" of fair use. Fair use is a defense. She may have meant "public domain," but even if so, she's still completely wrong. You can make use of public domain elements, but what you can't do is "remove" them so that no one else can do the same. But that's what she's claiming.]

2. Identify the material that you allege is infringing the copyrighted work listed in item #1, above.
The material I am alleging is infringing the copyrighted work is hosted at the following URL: http://madebymike.com.au/html5-periodic-table/

My HTML Elements and Attributes Infographic has evolved into a proprietary graphic with various derivative works. The one in question is an earlier derivative work which was submitted within a book prospectus submitted to publishers as early as May 2010. This version was leaked to Joshua Duck, who then made an unauthorized derivative work of my original work and hosted it at http://joshduck.com/periodic-table.html.

[Word salad. First, this still assumes that these are "derivative" from her works, when there's very little evidence to support that. And, remember, the only control Mills has is on derivative works of the parts of the original that was actually protectable by copyright. And there's almost nothing in the original that is protectable -- and what little there is does not appear to be carried over into Duck's or Riethmuller's design. And, of course, this argument rests on the still-unsubstantiated claim that Duck had access to her earlier versions and used that as the basis for his table.]

I filed a lawsuit against Joshua Duck March 2014 and the matter was settled out of court with Joshua Duck agreeing to removing the infringing content and not to use it again (Settlement agreement is attached). However, I have discovered that Michael Riethmuller has recreated another unauthorized derivative work which is an exact recreation of Josh Duck's work, which is also an unauthorized derivative work which infringed on my copyrighted work.

[It's not an "exact" recreation. It's significantly different and it's inspired by Duck's version, rather than being a ripoff of a ripoff of Mills' questionable "original."]

3.     Explain what the affected user would need to do in order to remedy the infringement
I recently emailed Michael Riethmuller to express my concerns and asked him to please change the credit language he is attributing to Josh Duck on his sites page. I am willing to allow Michael Riethmueller to keep the derivative work IF he is willing to update the credit language to state me as the true and rightful owner of the work.

[The only person who believes you're the "rightful owner" of common coding elements arrayed on a remix of Mendeleev's periodic table is YOU, Ms. Mills.]

He has not responded, which makes me allege that Josh Duck is somehow behind Michael Riethmuller recreation of his work, to add injury to insult. Additionally, both parties are coincidentally from Australia, though Josh Duck now resides in Northern California and is employed at Facebook. If Michael is unwilling to make this change in credit of the work, then I want to request for it to be completely taken down.

[The world according to Mills: Australia is a continent inhabited solely by Riethmuller and Duck, who have both conspired to screw Mills out of some poster sales. This bizarre theory helps explain why Mills can't be dissuaded of her notion that Duck somehow intercepted her earlier, unpublished chart. The world -- well, at least Australia -- has it in for Mills and will stop at nothing to steal her HTML 5 table.]

I also want to challenge Michael Riethmuller's threat that he will simply send a counter to my take down request on the bases of fair-use. Though the periodic table is fair-use and the HTML5 elements categorized by the W3.org is fair-use, my unique effort in categorizing and placement of the HTML5 elements within my chart made it eligible for U. S. copyright. Josh Duck copied my work without permission and with the false assumption that it was not copyrighted and thus he did not apply any real originality to his version, using the exact same color choices and placement of the elements within his chart making them jarringly similar. It is for this reason that I am asking Michael Riethmuller to either give appropriate credit to me at the true author of his "inspired" work, or take it down.

[Nice. A preemptive strike against fair use. The best offense is a good offense, I guess. As for the rest, anyone with eyes can see Duck's version does not use the "exact same color choices and placement of elements." And this has to be the first recorded use of the phrase "jarringly similar." Click through for the full-size version.]


The original takedown request is thoroughly ridiculous. As is Mills herself, who keeps finding conspiracies where none exist and doesn't seem to have even a basic understanding of fair use, idea vs. expression, derivative works or even that her chart she claims Duck copied exactly only very faintly resembles her version.

So, she told Riethmuller she'd drop all of this and let it go. That was the evening after the post went live. The next day, Riethmuller emailed me Mills' revived effort to have his table kicked off of Github.

Dear Github Support,

I am emailing to follow-up on the status of my DMCA notice. As per my last communication with Michael Riethmueller, I requested that he please place an appropriate credit to me as the original author of the work instead of taking down the work all together.

There is no mistake as to my copyrighted work being a protected work that does not fall under fair-use.

[This again. FAIR USE DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY. You can't exempt your copyrighted material from fair use. It either is or it isn't, but you can't somehow get out ahead of it just by declaring your work not open to fair use.]

I added enough originality to the expression of this art work by placing the HTML5 elements in my own unique order different from the World Wide Web Consortium's categorization of the HTML elements. This is the same copyright protect that is granted to all other authors of HTML5 literary books: they all came up with their own unique listing of the HTML elements within their works.

[So what? Just like all these authors used the same common elements to create protect-able creations, so did Mills. And Duck. And Riethmuller. It is completely possible for all of these to exist without infringing on each other and for every single one to be protected by copyright. Mills cannot seem to wrap her mind around this concept.]

The work that Michael Riethmueller is using is a modified version of Josh Duck's unauthorized version of my original art work. Josh Duck was under the false assumption that my work was not copyrighted and therefore copied my exact color scheme and placement of the HTML elements making the works too similar.

["Too similar?" It isn't. It's only as "similar" as the elements behind it force it to be (Mendeleev's periodic table design; the semi-rigid hierarchy of coding elements).]

I don't think it is unreasonable for me to request that Michael Riethmueller's work be credited appropriately to me to avoid additional unauthorized use of his work. Again, if Mr. Riethmueller is unwilling to update the author credit, I do want to request to have the work taken down.

[Riethmuller won't credit her because he never saw Mills' version. He may have seen Duck's version and his more closely bears resemblance to Duck's than to Mills', but either way none of these charts bear enough resemblance to each other to make one of them infringing. Riethmuller owes Mills nothing in the way of "credit." She had no part of this. She only thinks she does because she registered her version back in 2010 and now feels other versions are somehow infringing on her creation.]

Given Michael Riethmueller's refusal to credit the work to me as the rightful owner, I am also alleging that Josh Duck is somehow very much behind Michael's recreated work as a form of retaliation for my rightfully filing a lawsuit against him which was settled out of court at Josh Duck's explicit request.

[More conspiracy theories. Nothing factual alleged here and veering very close to being defamatory. This argument is about as worthless as her decision to play the sexism card during my earlier Twitter conversation with her. (If you're planning on chatting with her, get screenshots. She likes to delete tweets.]


So, Mills has learned nothing other than how to give the appearance that she's learned something. She's continuing to push Riethmuller to give her credit she doesn't deserve (and which is not a part of copyright law anyway) and she has clearly shown she doesn't understand the first thing about fair use, derivative works or that the underlying elements of "her" HTML 5 periodic table can be remixed in a number of highly-similar ways without infringing on her "original."

From where I sit, there just aren't enough periodic tables of HTML 5 elements and that situation should be remedied, although I would ask any Australians to refrain from participating unless they already know everyone else who lives on their continent.

Filed Under: alara mills, copyright, fair use, html 5, josh duck, mike riethmuller, periodic table, public domain

Designer Issues Takedown, Cease And Desist Over Periodic Table Of HTML5 Elements

from the not-really-yours-to-take-down,-is-it? dept

Anyone can have an idea. Multiple people can independently have the same idea. It's the expression that counts, but Alara Mills, the creator of one version of a periodic table of HTML5 elements, seems to think she should be able to curb other expressions of this idea.

Today I received a DMCA takedown request against my personal website over a trivial GitHub project that involves a periodic table layout and information about HTML5 elements.

The takedown request was preceded by an "impersonal email" from Alara Mills -- a cease and desist letter loaded with all sorts of scary claims about thousands of dollars being potentially at stake.

“You neither asked for nor received permission to use the Work… nor to make or distribute copies of it. Therefore, you have infringed my rights under 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq. and could be liable for statutory damages as high as $150,000 as set forth in Section 504(c)(2) therein.”

As Mike Riethmuller points out, he had never seen Alara Mills' version of this HTML5 table. His was inspired by another person's (Josh Duck) and was mainly just an exercise in CSS, rather than some sort of cottage industry designed to undercut the only thing Alara Mills offers at her website.

Here's a thumbnail version Alara Mills' HTML5 periodic table of elements, which we're posting to provide commentary on her copyright claims (since she appears to be very litigious about anyone doing anything -- we'd like to suggest she do some studying of fair use before complaining about this usage):

Because Mills is so protective of this product, there's no way to get a closer look at the arrangement of the elements to verify whether or not Riethmuller "copied" her layout.

Riethmuller's version, however, looks nothing like hers.

And, as he states in his post, it's clearly inspired by Josh Duck's:

Duck's version is no longer live because Alara Mills sued it out of existence. Mill's lawsuit claims that somehow Duck got ahold of an earlier version of her chart, which looks like this:

Duck's bears more resemblance to this than her finished product, but it's still not an exact copy. Besides, it's unclear what "copyrightable elements" Duck's could have possibly copied. The periodic table itself is not (and it's certainly not the creation of Alara Mills). The HTML 5 elements are not. The color arrangement, maybe? But those are different. The HTML5 logo is not. What little that might be protectable in Mills' effort is clearly not in Duck's. It is merely the same idea -- and ideas are not copyrightable.

And the link between Duck and Mills is extremely tenuous. Here's what Mills' lawsuit presents as "evidence" that Duck infringed on her table.

Mills emailed a copy of her prospectus to Kirk Kazanjian on July 12, 2010, which contained a derivative work of the HTML Table of Elements in order to receive initial feedback from him before pursuing book publishers. Kirk Kazanjian is a literary agent/former co-worker of Mills. Mills sells quick reference guides, wall-reference posters, and table posters displaying the HTML5 Elements Table™ graphic. A true and correct copy of the graphic submitted to Kirk Kazanjian in Mills’ email is attached hereto as Exhibit D.

[...]

On information and belief, Duck has been aware of Mills’ HTML5 Elements Table™ since July 2010, when Mills emailed a copy of the graphic to Kirk Kazajian.

On information and belief, Duck had access to Mills’ HTML5 Elements Table™

No further explanation is provided. The cease-and-desist that preceded the lawsuit is similarly vague. It simply makes an accusation but never explains how her legal representation (or Mills herself) arrived at this conclusion.

Ms. Mills submitted an earlier version of her chart within a book prospectus to a publisher in July 29, 2010, a copy of which is enclosed. This is the version that was possibly leaked to you in creation of your Periodic Table.

In other words, Mills found something on the internet that resembled something she thought was an entirely original idea, and the only conclusion she could come to was that somehow Duck must have gotten ahold of her submission. There are multiple more likely explanations for this -- chief among them being that things based on the periodic table will often resemble the periodic table as well as the hierarchy of coding terms being fairly rigid. These two elements mean that any independent creation utilizing both of these will bear heavy resemblance to another.

This was settled out of court. Duck agreed to remove the non-infringing chart in return for a dismissal with prejudice. The alternative would have been an expensive trip through the judicial system. Mills seems to feel that this acquiesence gives her the right to pursue creators of similar charts -- not similar to the version she sells -- but similar to the version she still maintains Duck "stole" from her.

Alara Mills, however, would rather not talk about it. After engaging with her for a bit on Twitter, she suddenly deleted most of her tweets to me.


Fortunately, the deleted tweets have been preserved


Now, Riethmuller has never seen this "leaked" version. He's only (possibly) seen Duck's. But he's building on a lot more than Duck. He's building on the same foundation Mills did. Only he's not claiming his chart is somehow sacrosanct.

The information about each element was shamelessly stolen from the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) and the layout is thanks to Dmitri Mendeleev. But luckily MDN and Dmitri are all about the learning and they support the community; as such I have much love for them both.

These two entities clearly inspired Mills as well, but no one went after her for utilizing the work of others. Riethmuller clearly didn't use hers as a starting point, but she thinks she can lock down an unoriginal idea and keep anyone else from expressing a combination of periodic tables and HTML5 elements that hews a bit too closely to hers. She's wrong, of course, and Riethmuller has filed a counternotice against her DMCA takedown. As of now, his table is still live at Github.

Riethmuller recognizes his work is not "original," but also that it's no "copy" of Mills' work. Unlike Mills, he wants people to build on his efforts, not consider it an endpoint that must not be remade, altered or otherwise moved forward.

I’d love to remake this using flexbox and update it with newer HTML elements and more detailed content. I’d love people to be able to fork it and learn more about creating challenging layouts with css. Or develop something new from this concept.

Riethmuller also points out how truly pointless creation would be if all creators acted like Alara Mills.

Imagine if we all received copyright challenges over something as tenuous a particular layout and subject matter. This would mean there could only be one single column web development blog (and not only that it would be a book).

That's how over-protecting creative works kills creativity. No one has a monopoly on ideas. Expressions can be protected but something as ordinary as a re-imagining of the periodic table isn't exclusive to one person. There are hundreds of periodic table "remixes" already out there, but apparently an HTML5 elements version won't be one of them. Here's another table inspired by Josh Duck that has been killed off -- perhaps by another threat from Alara Mills.

Mills doesn't "own" this idea, nor does she have any right to push these creations off the internet. But that's what she's been doing. She still has yet to answer my question as to the unsubstantiated claim that Duck had access to an unreleased version and has apparently rescinded her offer to tell me her side of the story. It doesn't take much to get the ball rolling on copyright trolling. All it takes is for someone to believe that only they could have arrived at this creative destination and that all others are simply infringers.

This story, however, has somewhat of a happy ending. Mills reached out to Riethmuller late in the day (a few hours after the half-deleted Twitter conversation took place) and apologized to him and withdrew her legal threats. According to Riethmuller, she appears to finally have realized that her claims of ownership over HTML5 period tables are extremely weak and that ambushing creators who are wholly unaware of her previous iterations (not that those supposed "copies," like Duck's infringed on that design either) with cease-and-desist orders does nothing but turn people against her -- and copyright in general.

Filed Under: alara mills, copyright, expression, html 5, idea, inspiration, josh duck, legal threats, mike riethmuller, periodic table, periodic table of the elements, sharing

Hollywood Needs The Internet More Than The Internet Needs Hollywood... So Why Is The W3C Pretending Otherwise?

from the get-on-with-it dept

Last week, we wrote about the MPAA joining the W3C almost certainly as part of its ongoing effort to push for DRM to be built into HTML5. Cory Doctorow has a beautifully titled blog post about all of this, saying that "we are Huxleying ourselves into the full Orwell." It's a great way to think about it, and Cory's quite pessimistic about the outcome:

Try as I might, I can’t shake the feeling that 2014 is the year we lose the Web. The W3C push for DRM in all browsers is going to ensure that all interfaces built in HTML5 (which will be pretty much everything) will be opaque to users, and it will be illegal to report on security flaws in them (because reporting a security flaw in DRM exposes you to risk of prosecution for making a circumvention device), so they will be riddled with holes that creeps, RATters, spooks, authoritarians and crooks will be able to use to take over your computer and fuck you in every possible way.

While I am quite frequently in agreement with Cory, I'm at least marginally more optimistic than he is about the eventual result here. Putting DRM into HTML is monumentally stupid, and he's right that it will create massive security and legal liabilities for almost everyone. But the history of DRM has shown, over and over again, that it gets broken to bits in minutes once released, and even if there is legal liability involved in such things, it always happens. It will happen again here, and there will be "patches" made pretty quickly. It will be a tremendous waste of resources on pretty much everyone's part, but I'm not convinced that it will be effective in making things that much more unsafe.

That said, the larger point that Cory raises reminds me of the key point that I'm still at a loss to understand here. Why the W3C and others who support this proposal seem to be so willing to kowtow to Hollywood on this. Yes, as Cory explains, it's really Netflix driving the bus here, but it's the Hollywood studios that are out there telling Netflix they need DRM:

And it’s basically all being driven by Netflix. Everyone in the browser world is convinced that not supporting Netflix will lead to total marginalization, and Netflix demands that computers be designed to keep secrets from, and disobey, their owners (so that you can’t save streams to disk in the clear).

But here's the thing: the internet wasn't built to be the next broadcast medium for big Hollywood blockbusters. It was built as a computing and communications platform. That's what made it special and it's why so many people have flocked to it. It's why it's "the internet." Hollywood came late to the party and has been trying to redesign the web in its own image ever since -- and that means locking it down so it's more about a broadcasting model, in which the "professionals" in Hollywood get to determine what you, the peons, get to do.

But there's a reason Hollywood so desperately wants to control the internet: because all the people are here. And that's an important point. Hollywood (and, by extension, Netflix) need the internet much more than the internet needs Hollywood. Sure, the Hollywood folks like to claim that the reason the internet is so popular is because of professional content, but there's little to no evidence to support that. Yes, people like to have access to that content, but it's never been the driving force for why people want to be online.

And we've seen this game before. The record labels demanded DRM from online music stores for years... until they realized that this was a complete waste of time and money for no benefit. And they finally agreed to what the public wanted: no DRM. There's no reason for the W3C to make this same mistake. The studios and Netflix can resist all they want. They can stick with their proprietary Silverlight players no matter how annoying and technologically backwards they might be. But, in the end, they'll come around to better, more open technologies like HTML5 because that's where the people are and that's what the people want.

So, the W3C has a serious choice to make here, and it's been betting on the wrong horse. Sure, Netflix will resist HTML5 for a while. Because that's what it feels it needs to do. But it won't last. Because it can't. History has shown over and over again that companies will eventually follow the will of the public and it will happen again here. There's no reason to go through a stupid, shortsighted and wasteful process of DRMing everything, only to see it cracked and broken within hours of being launched. Just drop the DRM, focus on building a system that better provides what the public wants... and Hollywood and Netflix will get there eventually as well.

Filed Under: drm, hollywood, html 5, internet, movies
Companies: mpaa, netflix, w3c

Not Cool: MPAA Joins The W3C

from the that's-not-going-to-end-well dept

The W3C has been at the forefront of open standards and an open internet for many years, obviously. So it's somewhat distressing to see it announced this morning that the MPAA has now joined the group. After all, it was not that long ago that the MPAA flat out tried to break the open internet by imposing rules, via SOPA, that would have effectively harmed security protocols and basic DNS concepts. All because it refuses to update its business model at the pace of technology. The MPAA has never been about supporting open standards or an open and free internet. The W3C states that its "principles" are "web for all, web for everything" and that its vision is "web of consumers and authors, data and services, trust." The MPAA has basically been opposed to... well.... all of that. It has tried to take a consumer web of authors and turn it into a broadcast medium for major producers. It's tried to destroy trust, and put in place locks and keys.

In short, the MPAA has no place at all in the W3C. If there had been any indication that this was a shift in the MPAA's thinking, that actually would be interesting. If the MPAA had shown even the slightest indication that it was finally willing to embrace real internet principles and standards, and move Hollywood into the 21st century, that would be a good thing, and they should participate. But that's not what this is about, at all.

Instead, I fear that this is because of the stupid fight, which the W3C supports, to put DRM in HTML5. Tim Berners-Lee, who created the web and heads the W3C, has (for reasons that still don't make any sense) supported this dangerous proposal. Despite detailed explanations for why this is a bad idea, he has continued to defend the idea, which appears to go against nearly everything he's said in the past. Having the MPAA join the W3C is not encouraging at all.

Berners-Lee's support of DRM in HTML5 seems to be based on the short-sighted (and simply wrong) idea that the web needs the legacy entertainment industry more than the legacy entertainment industry needs the web. Building truly open standards that the world adopts will get the MPAA and others to come along eventually, because they'll realize they need to go where the people are, even if it isn't crippled with restrictions and locks. Bringing the MPAA into the process only continues to perpetuate this idea that we should be building a broadcast platform for the entertainment industry to push a message at consumers, rather than building a platform for creators of all kinds to communicate and share.

Filed Under: creators, drm, html, html 5, open standards, tim berners-lee, web standards
Companies: mpaa, w3c

W3C Chief: To Prevent Parts Of The Web From Being Walled Off, We Need To Wall It Off Ourselves

from the wtf? dept

We've been concerned about the ridiculous attempt to add DRM to HTML 5 for some time, and doubly concerned about the W3C's support for the idea. That's been taken up a notch as the CEO of W3C, Jeff Jaffe, has been further defending the program with a very bizarre claim:

"The concern that we have is the premium content that owners are protecting using DRM will end up being forever severed from the web," Jaffe told ZDNet at the Cloud World Forum in London.

"We would like the web platform to be a universal platform. We don't think it's good when content finds its way into walled gardens or into closed apps.

But here's the problem: DRM itself is what allows "walled gardens" and "closed apps." So, if they truly believe that's not good, they should be against adding DRM to HTML 5. The argument made here is truly bizarre. It also presupposes that the web needs content companies more than the content companies need the web. That's almost certainly incorrect. Whenever the content companies have chosen to go in the other direction and to wall off things and lock them up, that's when you see the content flow through to the open web in an unauthorized manner. The way to stop that is for content companies to learn to embrace the web and to recognize, as many in the music world finally did, that DRM is a waste of time. It doesn't stop or even slow down copyright infringement. It just acts as a huge pain in the ass for those who acquired the works in a legitimate and authorized manner.

Filed Under: content, copyright, drm, html 5, jeff jaffe, walled gardens

Thinking About Possibilities: Arcade Fire Tries To Build The House You Grew Up In Into Latest Music Video

from the greater-interactivity dept

Brandon was the first of a few of you to send over the news of how the band Arcade Fire's latest "music video" is actually an experiment in more interactive HTML 5 experiences. The idea is that you're supposed to put in the address of where you grew up, and the "video" (which actually involves a bunch of different windows, rather than a single "video" window) builds the street you grew up on into the video itself via Google maps satellite view and Google Street View. Honestly, the implementation is just so-so (didn't actually work for where I grew up, so I tried where I live now -- which is on a hill -- which looks funny since the guy in the video is running on totally flat ground). Still, the overall experience is neat in at least getting people to think about the possibilities for both HTML 5, as well as adding much more customization into content. It also might finally get people to realize that videos don't need to just sit in a single box... While I doubt many musicians are going to do the same thing, hopefully it does inspire others to start thinking (literally) out of the video box, and about more interesting opportunities.

Filed Under: arcade fire, html 5, interactivity, music

Has Microsoft Extinguished Silverlight?

from the dying-embers dept

Remember Silverlight? That was Microsoft's attempt to take on Adobe Flash. There was plenty of attention paid to it when it launched, but it faded off the map pretty quickly, and that slow fade has only continued to the point that some are speculating that it's now dead. While not the strongest source, an anonymous comment in a forum devoted to Microsoft employees talking about Microsoft has noted that his team was told to stop using Silverlight and focus on HTML 5. It really is quite stunning how little traction Silverlight got over the past few years, and it seems like it certainly could be in Microsoft's best interests to give up the ghost on it.

Filed Under: html 5, silverlight
Companies: microsoft