 I'm still mad that as a society, we basically let the idea of "sideloading" become normalized. Just the idea that the software you run on your device is subject to DRM is so inherently and extremely wrong, and yet it's just normal now. So many other abuses of power in computing come back to that; to adapt Doctorow somewhat, there was a war on general-purpose computing, and we lost. (edit: see replies below for important discussion of "lost," and why that might not be the best word.) 10 comments
As an example of the consequences of that monumental shift in what society allows to be "normal," to make DRM work even to some rough approximation, you need a way that a device can prove to a server what software is running on that device — so-called attestation. That fundamentally breaks the idea that it's the *protocol* between a device and a server that matters, not the *implementation*, and thus fundamentally restricts what implementations are possible. To my lay understanding, that's what this shit with passkeys is all about: blocking devices and software that conform to a *protocol* but not to an *implementation*.  @xgranade we agree with you in general but as an activist, we feel it's our duty to say that the war is ongoing. we have not yet lost. there is plenty of hope, in part because people are starting to understand how important it is. @ireneista Perhaps the battle, then. There was a significant loss, and I agree that fight is going and going strong thanks in no small part due to people such as yourself. I just don't know how to name that loss, that shift in normality to the fucked state it's in now, if that makes any sense? @xgranade we agree with that it makes a ton of sense, it's a thing we are aware of because we spend a lot of time thinking about ways to keep our strategic assessment accurate without despairing heh @ireneista Absolutely. I tried to balance the same kinds of concerns, but I absolutely take the point that I may not have done so ideally. (if a "war" is lost, can you fight it again and win? what does losing a "war" mean when that war is at most a loose metaphor? how do I invoke the common idiom of "war on X" without carrying along the idea that when you lose a war, you tend to just be dead? language is hard) @xgranade @ireneista i suppose that's a state of occupation by the adversary, and then there are battles or even uprisings
 This shift *must* be reversed. But it's true – it has happened in people's minds already. This is now an uphill battle 😑 @quincy As @ireneista points out, it is a winnable battle, and one that activists are fighting right now. And yeah, it's a lot more uphill now that DRM has been so completely normalized in public awareness. |
Gregory's Server
(We can fight that war again and win, but damned if it's not harder now that DRM is just the norm, and user-owned devices are the rare exception.)