Based on the overwhelming feedback to my suggestion of a boycott of the new HD disc formats and their associated DRM schemes, I decided to push this further and set up a site to serve as the ‘home base’ for information and education around this issue. It is www.hdboycott.com
It is just a skeleton of a site so far, but with your help I expect it to improve rapidly.
This is a battle that has to be won ‘one mind at a time’, but I’ve got an idea how to increase the reach of our message. If there is enough support (that means cold hard cash donations) my plan is to buy keyword advertising and contextual advertising which will reach out to people who are searching for information about HD and related topics.
Besides donations, you can help in a number of other ways.
- If you know of any great articles on HD technology, DRM, AACS, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, fair use, first sale, and other related concepts and technology, please let me know so I can add them to the links pages.
- If you’d like to write an article on any of these topics, I can post them here too.
- I could use some graphic design and web design help with this site. Let me know if you’d like to volunteer.
Please, check out the rudimentary site, spread the word however you can, give us your feedback and sugguestion, and most importantly: don’t buy any of this stuff, no matter how tempting it may be.
Please Digg it to help get the word around.
I like the idea Mike, but I don’t think it should be confined to things that normally fall under the DRM category. What about copy protection on DVDs?
I think all the ideas that people like Richard Stallman have been fighting for should also be highlighted.
Some quick links:
http://www.pledgebank.com/boycottdrm
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy
Good initiative!
I believe that Bruce Schneier said it best,
“Digital files cannot be made uncopyable, any more than water can be made not wet.”
- The Futility of Digital Copy Prevention, in Cryptogram May 15, 2001
awesome.
anyway, maybe the main page would be cleaned up a little bit. The average joe who want to watch a movie will be puzzled, especially once they click on the link to WBL (is this a page-rank experiment? ) and get to the loooong article.
You might not even need very many sponsored ads, google’s pagerank should up the site on HD topics.
Why don’t you hold a design contest for the site? That way, you don’t need to spend an eternity tinkering with CSS and HTML, because there are certainly some people who are masters with design. I could help if you need it, but I’ve been awfully busy these last couple (and coming few) weeks.
Somebody – Yes, I know the page is hideous; it’s just a placeholder.
Hi Mike,
The good thing about the current design: it can only get better
E.g. the white text on black background hurts my eyes, BUT, I copied the first paragraph (to send it to my friends) and when you paste it, you have to make it black first – nothing major, but it should become extremely easy for people to inform friends etc. – the grassroot way – create logo’s, to be included in mail, IM. Create some catchy taglines…
My advice: go to a database driven website from day 2. If this thing grows (forum, newsletter) you’ll need it to be expandable.
Try Joomla – http://www.joomla.org. Here you can find templates.
It’s all Open Source, so: free.
Also, optimize pages for search engines: WEB CEO is good, you can download it for free here: http://www.webceo.com/
Also – get as many incoming links as possible – links (exchange) help to get high in SERPs.
Will think of other ‘advice’
Found your website in this Telegraaf article.
Is the biggest (online) newspaper in The Netherlands.
(your) news travels fast….
Trois’s ideas about informing friends would be good. Maybe a section of links to digg and stuff, plus a big “Spread the Word” button which links to an automatic mailer (I’ll assume your server has PHP). Create some catchy, but short email with a link to the site.
Good luck.
My paper for my English class is about how DRM limits fair use and how it’s impeding on past rulings and assumptions. I may incorporate this into my paper. When it’s done, I’ll send it to you and do what you wish with it.
Brad – that would be great; I’d love to see it.
If this boycott is also going to cover 5C encrypting on my cable STB, then include me too. It’s incredible that I pay a fortune each month for my cable service only to find out that I can’t record it.
What about me, the producer of HD content (though I deliver in DV)? I want to boycott, but I still need to survive and I need a new HDV camera. I still deliver in DV and when I make an HD dvd in Apple, I have no rules other than not to copy and distribute it (distribute!!!!)–My wife, dogs and I need to eat, too.
heath
One more:
http://www.stereophile.com/news/022006fair/
Oh, and a friend mentioned that this is like me buying the new Harry Potter book but my wife needs to buy her own copy to read it. ARGH!
heath
Information is the only one weapon we have to fuck them, so that site though not very nice, it´s very useful. In every forum I am, I´ve put a link to people know a little more of this. Unfortunately, in Spain english level is not like in other european countries, but even so there are many people who will read it.
Regards
THANK YOU AMEN!!! IF I BUY THE MOVIE I SHOULD BE ABLE TO PUT IT ON MY SERVER WITH THE REST OF THE MOVIES!!!!!!
Mike… couldn’t you have just whipped up an iWeb page? Anyway, I’m behind you 100% I’m happy with DVDs and I don’t think we need new formats flooding the market. Sony already makes me angry every time it releases a new MemoryStick format that’s not backwards compatible and you’ll have to move because their new camera only uses the new format. I will not stand for this any longer.