Originally published August 8 2009
NaturalNews Calls for Boycott on Kindle, iPhone and Other Big Brother DRM Technologies
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) Two weeks ago when Amazon.com remotely deleted copies of books that customers had purchased for their Kindle devices, it was a wake-up call for many consumer. "Huh? They can delete stuff I already bought?" Welcome to the world of DRM technology.
DRM is a "Big Brother" technology that allows content controllers like Amazon.com or Apple to control (or even delete) content you've already paid for. Books, movies, music files and even software applications can be deleted or deactivated at the flick of a (digital) switch. Such technologies also limit your ability to move content from one device to another. You can't read Kindle books on your Sony E-Reader, for example. Nor can you loan a Kindle book to a friend in the way that you might loan a physical book to a friend (or check one out from the library).
NaturalNews joins the librarians of the world in taking a stand against DRM technology and restoring the freedom to read books (or other content) without being tethered to a digital leash from an overbearing corporate content provider.
As such, we hereby advise the following to NaturalNews readers:
• Avoid all DRM purchases, period! Stop buying DRM-locked content from Apple, Amazon.com or other "Big Brother" content publishers.
• Stop renting DRM-protected movies through services such as Amazon's "Video on Demand" service. These movies are restricted in the way you are allowed to view them, and on some services, they expire if you don't watch them quickly enough.
• Don't buy DRM-protected music. Stick with DRM-free "clean" MP3 files that you can keep for life.
• Avoid MP3 music subscription services that require your MP3 player to sync with the server from time to time (such as Napster To Go, etc.).
• Don't buy DRM-protected audio books from sellers like Audible.com, whose strict DRM technology complicates your book listening experience and makes it impossible for you to move files from one device to another without re-syncing with their servers.
Above all, do not financially reward "Big Brother" companies that try to control you with DRM technology! Learn more about the problems with DRM technology at www.DefectiveByDesign.org
Why NaturalNews embraces peer-to-peer file sharing technology
NaturalNews has always released its content without DRM protections of any kind. Our music files (Health Ranger hip hop songs) have been offered as free, open downloads in clean MP3 formats (http://www.naturalnews.com/Index-Music.html). Our articles, cartoons, videos and podcasts have all been 100% DRM-free and will continue to stay that way.
We believe knowledge wants to be free, and if we could find a way to give away all our Truth Publishing books for free and still pay the bills around here, we would do that, too. But even though we sell some books as a way to cover our operating costs, we still don't use any sort of DRM limitations on those books.
Now, in response to Amazon.com's Kindle deletion scheme (and Apple's ongoing Big Brother philosophy on content control), NaturalNews is embracing peer-to-peer content distribution technology (torrents) to distribute our content in a 100% DRM-free format.
We have joined Mininova (www.Mininova.org) as a Premium Content Provider and begun uploading our DRM-free hip hop songs for global distribution. See the NaturalNews content page here: http://www.mininova.org/user/naturalnews
(You'll need a bittorrent client like Vuze to download these NaturalNews files. You can find that at www.Vuze.com )
The way this peer-to-peer technology works is that our uploaded files are "seeded" by Mininova.org, where users can search for and download the files to their own computers. Users who download the files ("leechers") then become "seeders" who start seeding (sharing) the file with other users. The result is a highly-efficient, community-oriented file sharing technology that allows content publishers like NaturalNews to share quality content with potentially millions of users without having to carry the burden of a central download server being hammered with the combined bandwidth load. With peer-to-peer file sharing technology, the bandwidth load is distributed among those who are downloading and sharing the files. It's a decentralized, Democratic technology that serves the People, not the oppressive corporate content controllers.
Not surprisingly, the big corporate content controllers are adamantly against peer-to-peer file sharing websites and technologies. Rather than embracing the way consumers want to get content, they spend millions of dollars trying to shut down these sites. Admittedly, there's quite a bit of file sharing of copyrighted movies and other content that goes on with these sites: You can download the complete (unauthorized) musical discographies of almost any popular music artist, for example, and just about every movie that's out on DVD is also available through (unauthorized) peer-to-peer file sharing networks. But at the same time, many of these networks carry a huge and valuable collection of public domain content and publisher-authorized content such as the songs, videos and podcasts that NaturalNews will be publishing through Mininova.
Sites like LegalTorrents.com (www.LegalTorrents.com) also offer a wealth of peer-to-peer downloadable content that's both legal and free.
The fact that you can download public domain books (similar to Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org ) through peer-to-peer torrents makes this technology extremely valuable. It is a decentralized, free and people-powered knowledge-sharing platform that cannot be controlled by any particular government, corporation or institution. And that's precisely why governments, corporations and institutions fight this technology: They can't stand the fact that consumers might have freedom over the way they get content.
Peer-to-peer technology is the ultimate threat to centralized power and control over the content people consume.
What's next from NaturalNews
In the near future, we'll be posting more audio, videos and even an upcoming hip hop song on the Mininova.org torrent site. Feel free to download and share these content items under the Creative Commons license (www.CreativeCommons.org).
Best resources for peer-to-peer file sharing technology
If you need bittorrent software, here are the most popular ones available today:
• Vuze (www.Vuze.com)
• uTorrent (www.uTorrent.com)
• BitTorrent (www.BitTorrent.com)
Responsible practices for peer-to-peer file sharing
• Don't share copyrighted content (like movies, music or other content) unless you have explicit permission from the content owner.
• DO share open-source content, public domain content and the NaturalNews items we post for public sharing.
• Don't be a leech. If you download content, stay connected and upload at least as many gigabytes as you download. Your share ratio should always be greater than 1.0
Enjoy!
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