The Electronic Frontier Foundation has expressed concerns that Adobe's efforts to develop a DRM system for Flash video content will be bad news for users looking to remix and repurpose digital media content. Adobe's DRM will principally be used in its new streaming desktop media player application, but will also be supported in the Flash browser plug-in.

The primary function of DRM is, theoretically, to block copyright infringement. But DRM also restricts many noninfringing activities that have traditionally been protected under the banner of fair use. The draconian Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) broadly prohibits circumvention of copy-protection mechanisms, and thus criminalizes the exercise of fair use rights on DRM-encumbered content. The failure of the DMCA to provide adequate exceptions and safeguards for fair use, critics say, undermines the underlying principle of the copyright system, which is to promote creativity by establishing a fair balance between the rights of content producers and content consumers. All too often, lawmakers focus on protecting the content industry and forget that the permissive elements of copyright law—like fair use and the public domain—are just as essential to fulfilling the purpose of the system.

The EFF notes that an increasing number of Internet users are downloading and modifying short video clips to create expressive "remixes" that have independent value. These remixes often fall well within the bounds of fair use, because they do not contain substantive portions or decrease the profitability of the original works from which they are derived. The EFF contends that broad adoption of DRM on Flash video would criminalize production of such remixes despite the fact that they are not in themselves infringing. In addition to stifling creativity and freedom of expression, the EFF argues that DRM in this context also deprives society of a valuable learning tool.

"[T]he prospect of widespread adoption of DRM restrictions on Flash threatens to squash a growing tradition of expressive fair use of online video—a practice effectively in its infancy that, left unfettered, would be a dynamic solution to our failing effort to teach media literacy," the EFF's Seth Schoen wrote in a statement. "Before we understand how to read media messages, we must first learn how to speak their language—and we learn that language by playing with and remixing the efforts of others. DRM, by restricting the remixing of Flash videos, stands to bankrupt a rich store of educational value by foreclosing the ability of students and teachers to 'echo others' by remixing videos posted online."

Prairie dog says: "Don't tase me bro!"

Schoen cites the Dramatic Prairie Dog as an example of an instance in which the ability to freely manipulate video content led to the emergence of an influential Internet cultural meme that exploded into the mainstream. The EFF links to a number of Dramatic Prarie Dog video remixes posted on YouTube, one of which has been viewed literally millions of times. These remixes often parody other elements of popular culture by incorporating elements of movies. Creating these short remixes is fully permissible now, but might not be for very long if DRM continues to become more pervasive—a calamity that would certainly justify Dramatic Prairie Dog's poignant expression of existential horror.

DRM technologies generally have a poor track record when it comes to protecting multimedia content. Virtually every new and advanced copy-protection system that has ever been touted as unbreakable has been circumvented (even Blu-ray's BD+), which has led many to wonder why these technologies are so widely used. The reason is simple: DRM can be used to lock out competitors and force law-abiding customers to fork over cash for every conceivable usage of encumbered content, including activities that were once protected as fair use.

The EFF also notes that DRM will likely lock out alternate implementations of the Flash player, such as the the one created by the open-source Gnash project. Alternate implementations are important because they diminish the risks of vendor lock-in and bring access to relevant technologies to unsupported platforms. For instance, the Gnash player can make Flash content accessible to users of alternative operating systems for which Adobe does not supply a version of its own proprietary Flash player.

Although the EFF specifically targets Adobe with its criticism, it is important to remember that there are other companies already developing their own DRM technologies for Flash and Microsoft's competing Silverlight framework has DRM support as well. Adobe likely sees adoption of DRM as a competitive necessity and potential source of additional revenue (the EFF notes that the ability to add DRM to content will only be available in Adobe's high-end Flash video streaming products). It seems like media software makers are intent on serving the content industry's desire to prevent the next Dramatic Prairie Dog from popping out of its hole.

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