Earlier this month we celebrated International Day Against DRM. During International Day Against DRM (IDAD), we asked you to join us in trying to get Netflix to drop DRM from its original productions by signing this letter.
On August 1st, we'll be sending that petition, with its signatures, to executive staff at Netflix, as well as members of its board. If you haven't already signed the petition, please consider doing so today. So far hundreds of people from 49 countries have signed the petition, and you can join them in making the Web freer.
Why are we asking Netflix to remove DRM from Netflix originals?
Of course, we would love for Netflix to remove DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) from its site entirely. Whether Web sites are offering downloads or streaming videos, DRM steps on your rights as someone watching, experiencing, and talking about film and television. DRM keeps you from not only owning your media, but owning your experiences of it.
However, Netflix has been shifting the blame for DRM restrictions onto studios, saying that it cannot license videos made by studios without these restrictions. On a World Wide Web Consortium mailing list, Mark Watson, Director of Streaming Standards at Netflix, said that "content protection is a very significant requirement in the contracts with studios and others who license content to us. It's certainly not something we impose on them."
While we don't agree with the decision, Netflix chose to accept these stipulations in its contracts. These conditions have nothing to do with the original works being produced by Netflix. The company has the opportunity to not just change its policies to respect your rights as a subscriber of its service, but also to drive the development of ethical ways for companies to distribute media.
Please sign the petition, insisting that Netflix respect the rights of its subscribers!
More about DRM
DRM is the practice of imposing technological restrictions that control what users can do with digital media. This concentrates control over production and distribution of media, giving DRM peddlers the power to carry out massive digital book (or movie) burnings and large-scale surveillance over people's media viewing habits.