In parts of the world where the majority of adults and a minority of children possess multiple digital gadgets (cellphone, music player, laptop, notepad, videoscreen, etc.), to be prohibited from changing and experimenting with software inside a gadget even if the manufacturer was only allowed to use that software on condition of letting you modify it, is not so bad. Most people will have or be able to purchase another device on which they can hack the software. But in much of the world, including where most of the minds live whom we mean to enlist in the transformation of human society, this is not true. If the “content owners” were able to make most digital hardware unprogrammable by its owners, our methods of making and our engine of social change could be disarmed.
So on this subject the Free World had a non-negotiable ask of its colleagues in industry: you may support the content PR men because they are good customers, but you must join with us in modifying their program—regardless of the effect on their campaign for universal DRM, or “digital rights management,” which is going to fail anyway—in the interest of the community of communities.
[I expect that live conversation will somewhat enlarge upon the material described in this and the preceding sections.]