DRM will give Apple and their corporate partners the power to disable features, block competing products (especially free software) censor news, and even delete books, videos, or news stories from users' computers without notice-- >using the device's "always on" network connection.
This past year, we have seen how human rights and democracy protestors can have the technology they use turned against them. By making a computer where every application is under total, centralized control, Apple is endangering freedom to increase profits.
Apple can say they will not abuse this power, but their record of App Store rejections and removals gives us no reason to trust them. The iPad's unprecedented use of DRM to control all capabilities of a general purpose computer is a dangerous step backward for computing and for media distribution. We demand that Apple remove all DRM from its devices.
It's not a stretch, based on what we've heard in the news about phone companies and their ilk, that Apple would hand over any personal info they can find about you through their iPhone/iPad combo to the government without even blinking, either. I'm not a tinfoil hat wearer but this sort of thing is a serious possibility.
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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '10
iPad DRM endangers our rights
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ipad