FTC Warns Against Deceptive DRM

Jane Q. Public writes "At the Federal Trade Commission's Seattle conference on DRM, FTC Director Mary Engle started off by referencing the Sony rootkit debacle, and said that companies are going to have to get serious about disclosing DRM that may affect the usability of products. She also said that disclosure via the fine print in a EULA is not good enough, and 'If your advertising giveth and your EULA taketh away, don't be surprised if the FTC comes calling.' Transcripts and webcasts are available from the FTC website." Update 18:13 GMT by SM: as Jane Q. Public was nice enough to diplomatically point out, the webcasts are no longer functioning, but transcripts are still available.

I'll believe it when I see it

[Anonymous Coward]

It is nice that the FTC has admitted a few of the problems with DRM but them actually stopping or changing or even challenging it seems a bit out there. Enough money and all government problems seem to go away.

Re:Punishing corporations

[qbzzt]

So line managers will have to decide between risking their jobs and risking jail time. It sucks for them, but it will reduce the chance of corporations performing crimes.

Re:Sounds great!

[je ne sais quoi]

Mod parent up! Along with the own it/license it false advertising, the entire current format for blu-ray media discs needs to scrapped, along with HDCP. The blu-ray java engine just means I need to run windows to play blu-ray discs as they should be and the HDCP means that I can't play my legally purchased discs using my legally purchased blu-ray disc drive except at a crummy resolution. I need to break the law and remove the copy protection just to view them. I would say this is a huge joke, but at $30 a disc, it isn't funny.

Re:Well, well.

[Manchot]

Since people are so big on having corporations having the same rights as people, I would love to have a justice system that actually treats them equivalently. Did a corporation knowingly break the law? If so, send it to "prison:" revoke its corporate charter for a certain period of time, and prevent it from doing business. Better yet, force it to make license plates for the state.

Re:Well, well.

[MasterOfMagic]

That must be why the drug cartel leaders personally escort the drugs across borders because they don't care about being shielded from the responsibility for their actions.

Of course gangs are specifically designed to insulate those at the top from legal responsibility for their actions. That's why there are drug mules that carry the drugs, a chain of intermediaries that carry orders (assumed to be from their boss, but can't be proven legally) to the people executing them. The whole point of being a higher-up a well-run gang is that the people below you get busted and you escape being charged.

Re:Does this have anything to do with...

[Ihmhi]

Perhaps we should go buy a particularly popular film on DVD - say, Bolt - but get it in a region that won't work in the States. Then give it out as a gift to Senators.

Could put a little note in there that says, "If there's any problems with getting this DVD to play, please go to [website]" where we'll have info on how regions work and why that new movie won't play for them.

Re:Well, well.

[Anonymous Coward]

So you are saying if I put code in my next software release that opens up a hole into your computer for me, the CEO should go to jail?

So are you saying that no individual should be responsible for the actions of a corporate entity?

You don't seem to realize that the only difference between today's large corporations and Skynet of the Terminator movie series is that today's large corporations don't run around deliberately killing people... unless they can make a lot of money by doing so, in which case they do.

Re:Does this have anything to do with...

[Stephen Samuel]

Region Locking may have more of an effect than you think. It prevents us (in North America) from even considering buying, for example, a Japanese or European video. Like Anime? Want to see the original Japanese cut of "Ghost in the Machine"? You're going to be hard put to find it in any shop in your city. Your only real choices are:

1. obtain a bootleg copy,
2. Buy it Direct from Japan -- which would also require a Japanese-region DVD player.

Thus it is that most people don't even think about option 2, unless they're seriously considering building a large library of Japanese video...

The effective result is that most people don't even consider option 2. Either they get a bootleg copy, find (and limit themselves to) americanized version of foreign movies or they forget about buying foreign DVDs altogether.

In terms of cross-culture polination, it simply sucks.