Anti-DRM campaigners plan to take the fight to Apple’s international chain of retail stores, with the Free Software Foundation calling on Defective by Design supporters to book slots at Apple’s Genius Bars worldwide to ask questions about DRM.
While we can see its a fairly imaginative way to deal with a campaign on digital freedoms, we do think the campaigners may risk raising the ire of many Apple users, particularly those with real technical problems with their Macs waiting behind campaigners in the queue.
Anyway, the Defective by Design crew are campaigning against DRM. They also complain that Apple’s insistence all iPhone software be vetted blocks free software development; they are concerned at its location-sensing technologies, which they believe, "provides ways for others to track you without your knowledge. They also want Apple to widen support for different audio formats in the device.
To reinforce their point, they’re asking supporters to book one or more slots at Genius Bars in order to moan about the iPhone and DRM.
They’ve provided a ‘Fact Sheet’ as to what they feel is wrong or right in the iPhone (though, frankly, it’s pretty focused on what they feel is wrong, so…) This comment was interesting: "Apple’s marketing machine is trying to justify DRM by treating you, the user, as a threat. They claim that one rogue application on your iPhone could possibly bring the phone network to its knees. "
Instead, the campaigners note, "Most smartphones, including those by OpenMoko, Nokia, RIM, Palm and even Microsoft, allow applications to come from a variety of sources, including free software developers."
Ho-hum, so I guess the news is, perhaps expect queues at the Genius Bar on Friday and Saturday, and Genius Bar staff will probably get a memo offering them a few stock answers to the questions the campaigners helpfully put together.
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