After a string of anti-DRM protests by activist organization Defective by Design, another group has staged a similar action in France. A forty-member group known as StopDRM recently paraded through the Latin Quarter of Paris, using banners and leaflets the confess to a crime. The offense? StopDRM pled guilty to playing iTunes-purchased tracks on a non-Apple device. If that sounds silly to the average consumer, that’s the point: the act is technically illegal in France under a recently-updated law. The protest for fair use ended at the local police station where confused cops — who last year faced weeks of violent Islamic protests ― formed a riot line until they could ascertain the situation. There, the protesters explained their offense. “Not only did I not use an iPod to listen to an iTunes song,” said protester Jerome Martinez, “but I transferred the film ‘Blade Runner’ onto my handheld movie player.” It took several minutes for police to be convinced a crime was indeed committed, but eventually Martinez and two cohorts were escorted inside to register their offenses.
The protest soon caught the attention of the New York Times, giving the event plenty of exposure. For StopDRM, the hope is that high levels of visibility will stimulate en-masse consumer rejection of all DRM-enabled products.
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