EFFector       Vol. 13, No. 8       Sep. 18, 2000       [email protected]

  A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation     ISSN 1062-9424

 IN THE 156th ISSUE OF EFFECTOR (now with over 25,100 subscribers!):

    * EFF Calls for Boycott of "HackSDMI Challenge"
    * Administrivia

  For more information on EFF activities & alerts: http://www.eff.org
    _________________________________________________________________

EFF Calls for Boycott of "HackSDMI Challenge"

 Don't Undermine Your Own Fair Use Rights!

  Electronic Frontier Foundation ALERT -- Sep. 18, 2000

  Please redistribute to relevant forums, no later than Nov. 1, 2000.

 Introduction

  The Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), an entertainment industry
  trade association led by the Recording Industry Association of America
  (RIAA), has announced a "contest" in their "Open Letter to the Digital
  Community" (at http://www.sdmi.org/pr/OL_Sept_6_2000.htm ), where they
  challenge hackers to test the security of their music encryption
  program. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urges the Internet
  community to boycott this contest and refrain from helping the
  recording industry perfect a way to undermine our fair use rights.

  EFF is the first to acknowledge that hacking at encryption code is
  vital to ensuring security in digital architecture. However, we
  question the motives of SDMI, which has indicated an interest in
  severely limiting your ability to listen to digital recordings in your
  favorite format and in undermining all attempts at non-SDMI-compliant
  music distribution models.

  EFF therefore urges anyone with the technical expertise to compete for
  the $10,000 prize to refrain from doing so and to tell SDMI - and your
  friends, relatives and colleagues that you are participating in this
  boycott and why.

  EFF also invites musicians and listeners to participate in a "contest"
  to Set Digital Music Free (SDMF), where the prize is your freedom to
  distribute your music any way you choose. The SDMF challenge, part of
  EFF's Campaign for Audiovisual Free Expresssion (CAFE), is aimed at
  empowering musicians and listeners through alternative business models
  with open architectures in cyberspace. Detailed explanations of SDMF
  and CAFE are available at http://www.eff.org/cafe .

 SDMI's Motivations

  SDMI has proposed a new standard that they are heavily pushing on
  equipment and software manufacturers. The Digital Music Access
  Technology, or DMAT, format is intended to put an encryption-based
  shell around digital audio content that prevents unauthorized copying
  or playback. Examples of "unauthorized" uses are likely to include
  your attempts to: play music files on any player that does not honor
  DMAT; make backups of your music files; excerpt portions of music
  files in high quality audio; or have multiple copies of music files,
  such as having one for a portable player and one in your car.
  Furthermore, there has been some speculation that SDMI will arm-twist
  equipment makers into either disallowing playback of non-DMAT music or
  converting it permanently to DMAT format, regardless of the intent of
  the artist that produced and released it. Finally, copyright is only
  intended to cover works for a limited time, after which they are
  supposed to become part of the public domain. This transition will no
  longer be allowed to take place with technology such as DMAT, where a
  song that is branded with the industry's watermark will be
  copy-protected eternally.

 Civil Liberties Concerns

  DMAT is designed to undermine fair use and related rights, such as:
  the ability to play content on whatever equipment the purchaser
  desires; the right to "time shift" and "space shift" (e.g., record for
  playback at a later time or in a different format); the right to make
  backup copies of purchased content; the right to actually own instead
  of simply "license" purchased content (the "First Sale" doctrine); the
  right of artists to distribute content digitally without signing
  ownership of their works over to a major record label; the rights of
  journalists and educators to re-use content excerpts without having to
  pay licensing fees; and many more. SDMI's neglect to address these
  fair use issues displays a shocking and callous attitude towards the
  public domain rights of consumers and artists in the digital world.

  Most at risk by the SDMI proposal are independent artists and the
  consumers who appreciate their work. Increasing numbers of artists are
  recognizing the awesome potential of the Internet to directly connect
  with their listeners. Technological advances and alternative
  distribution methods should allow more musicians to enter the market
  at a lower cost to consumers. This change is not welcomed by the big
  record labels, however, which have depended on musicians only being
  able to reach potential listeners through the exclusive distribution
  power of the recording industry. SDMI's DMAT is the industry's attempt
  to keep its stranglehold on music distribution.

  SDMI wants DMAT to be uncrackable so that all who dare to exercise
  their rights will be cryptographicly prevented from doing so. The RIAA
  is mischaracterizing all "unauthorized" access or duplication - no
  matter how well protected by fair use and other rights - to be
  copyright piracy. And now SDMI is asking the very hackers they malign
  in the press and in court as criminal copyright pirates and thieves to
  help SDMI make DMAT unbreakable!

  EFF has attempted dialog with SDMI and even asked to be part of SDMI
  in an attempt to improve it from a public interest perspective. SDMI
  consistently rejected our applications and has completely ignored all
  of the fair use, constitutional, anti-trust and social responsibility
  concerns we have raised with DMAT. Enough is finally enough.

 Don't Do Their Dirty Work!

  EFF urges all hackers, reverse engineers, digital audio experts,
  cryptographers and others targeted by SDMI's Trojan horse invitation
  to refrain from giving them free consulting on how to hack away at
  your rights. Please:
    * Refrain from participating in the "HackSDMI" backstab.
    * Publicly say you are doing so (in your e-mail signature file, on
      hacking, engineering and other relevant mailing lists, on your own
      web page, and wherever else you deem appropriate).
    * Write to SDMI and tell them that you refuse to help them undermine
      your own rights, and why.
    * Urge colleagues to do likewise.
    * Inform and encourage musicians to participate in the SDMF
      challenge through CAFE.
    * Join EFF!

  If you are not a tech expert but are a user of digital music
  technology, you too can play a role:
    * Write to SDMI and to your favorite MP3 equipment/software
      vendor(s) and tell them that you want to be able to choose how you
      listen to your music. Express your concerns with distribution
      systems that lock you into a single technology or music player.
      Tell them that you do not appreciate being considered a thief by
      default.
    * Pass this alert around to your friends. (Please only recirculate
      to appropriate forums if sending to mailing lists, etc.)
    * Write to your favorite artists (e.g., via their record labels) and
      ask them to take a public stand.
    * Join EFF!

  If you are an independent artist, you can:
    * Participate in CAFE and the SDMF initiative
      ( http://www.eff.org/cafe )
    * Inform and encourage other artists to participate in CAFE and
      SDMF.
    * Release your material in MP3 and other open formats.
    * Send your music to outlets that are dedicated to giving exposure
      to artists using open formats such as Radio EFF
      (http://www.eff.org/radioeff/)
    * Tell SDMI you oppose their attempt to force manufacturers to
      disable support for non-DMAT music in an attempt to herd new
      artists toward the RIAA oligopoly.
    * Join EFF!

  If you are a "signed" artist, you can really help:
    * Tell SDMI you do not agree that protecting music industry and
      artists' revenues is dependent on stripping everyone of their
      rights;
    * Tell your label you do not support SDMI or DMAT.
    * Tell your fans (live, on your web site, in lyrics, etc.) that you
      do not believe they are all a bunch of pirates, and that they
      should write to the labels and protest being treated like they are
      all thieves by default.
    * Contact us about becoming more involved in speaking out against
      the direction the industry is pushing digital content.
    * Join EFF!

 For More Information

  EFF's Campaign for Audiovisual Free Expression (CAFE)

    http://www.eff.org/cafe

  The "HackSMDI" site:

    http://www.hacksdmi.org

  the SDMI homepage:

    http://ww.sdmi.org

    _________________________________________________________________

                                Administrivia

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