We regret to report the sudden, unexpected death of Digital Rights Management. Details of the tragedy at present remain unclear, but he was rushed to the hospital following a direct collision with an oncoming future last week at 10 PM. He was seven years old.
Zuneral Services
May 24th (this Saturday)
6:30 PM
JFK Park, Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA
Yesterday, in preparation of the public funeral that will take place this Saturday, members of Harvard College Free Culture entombed the recently-deceased Digital Rights Management in Quincy Courtyard at around 5 PM. As part of the healing process, all the attendees took part in saying goodbye to DRM by constructing its coffin.
The Decedents
The decedents are encased into their pourable-but-not-too-liquidy coffin
The final funeral and burial services for the recently deceased will take place at 6:30 PM on Saturday, May 24th in Cambridge’s JFK Park. A reception will follow to give attendees the chance to reminisce of the short life and accomplishments of DRM and to grieve together.
(Harvard College Free Culture would like to thank Rachel and Jason for their Zune and iPod, respectively. We are sorry for your loss.)
Published by xu May 22nd, 2008
in Boston, DRM and Events.
We regret to report the sudden, unexpected death of Digital Rights Management. Details of the tragedy at present remain unclear, but he was rushed to the hospital following a direct collision with an oncoming future last week at 10 PM. He was seven years old.
Let us mourn together. You are invited to attend a burial and memorial service for consumer devices containing Digital Rights Management hosted by Harvard College Free Culture.
May 24th (this Saturday)
6:30 PM
JFK Park, Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA
Published by xu May 19th, 2008
in Boston, DRM and Events.
Here at Harvard College Free Culture, we’re all mostly recuperating from the seven-month adventure that was the creation and execution of ROFLCon (which was, by the way, a smashing success!). However, in a downhill battle like ours, victories keep on rolling in even while we rest. Today it was announced that the Harvard Law School faculty has unanimously voted in favor of adopting an open access policy like the one the college adopted earlier this year.
By the way, I learned of this news from John Palfrey, the current Executive Director of the Berkman Center who has recently been appointed the vice dean of library and information resources at HLS. JP has been nothing but wonderful to us for the entire lifespan of HCFC thus far, and we wish him the best of luck in his new job even though we will miss working with him in the same capacity!
Published by xu May 7th, 2008
in News and Open Access.
Yesterday, the Crimson published an op-ed encouraging students to participate in our Free Thesis Project, the online open-access repository of undergraduate theses that members of Harvard FC built last year. It only has 19 submissions in it now, but we hope this op-ed will really raise awareness about it and make it much bigger! If you’re a Harvard undergrad (or alumni) with a thesis to contribute, please consider uploading it. The process is painless and the benefits are many.
Published by xu April 11th, 2008
in News and Open Access.
Damian Kulash, lead singer of OK Go, has written this great op-ed in the New York Times supporting net neutrality. It’s concise, targeted towards a non-techie audience, and very convincing. Additionally, he and fellow band member Andy Ross (who codes for the Participatory Politics Foundation) have recently been asked to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on net neutrality, so they’re definitely all-stars in my book. The only time I raised my eyebrow in concern, however, was when he wrote:
“We can’t allow a system of gatekeepers to get built into the network. The Internet shouldn’t be harnessed for the profit of a few, rather than the good of the many; value should come from the quality of information, not the control of access to it.
For some parallel examples: there are only two guitar companies who make most of the guitars sold in America, but they don’t control what we play on those guitars. Whether we use a Mac or a PC doesn’t govern what we can make with our computers. The telephone company doesn’t get to decide what we discuss over our phone lines. It would be absurd to let the handful of companies who connect us to the Internet determine what we can do online. Congress needs to establish basic ground rules for an open Internet, just as common carriage laws did for the phone system.”
The point he is trying to make is important, but I wonder at his choice to oversimplify the situation surrounding Macs and PCs. With Digital Rights Management being what it is these days, it is becoming increasingly clear, especially to creators and fans of music, that whether you use a Mac or a PC can govern, legally and without-hacking-technically, what you can do or make with your computers.
Net neutrality is a really important issue, and Damian Kulash should absolutely be applauded for supporting this cause on such a visible platform, but he (and we) should all be aware that it is only one battle in a long series. When we succeed at net neutrality, there will be other issues to fight for that are perhaps even more fundamental as well as more nuanced. I hope all the proponents of net neutrality will recognize the importance of these other struggles and stay on-board. We’ll need all the help we can get!
Published by xu April 6th, 2008
in Art, Music, News and net neutrality.
