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contend with is that even though most of our yet-unborn constituency would agree heartily with our central mission - giving everybody everywhere the right to both address and hear everybody everywhere else - the decisions that will determine the eventual viability of that right are being made now and generally in gatherings invisible to the general public, using terminology, whether technical or legal, that would be the verbal equivalent of chloroform to anyone not conversant with such arcana. 

I\'ve often repeated my belief that the first responsibility of a human being is to be a better ancestor. Thus, it seems fitting that the appearance of this book, which details much of Cory\'s time with the EFF, coincides with the appearance of his first-born child, about whom he is a shameless sentimental gusher. 

I would like to think that by the time this newest prodigy, Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow - you see what I mean about paternal enthusiasm - has reached Cory\'s age of truly advanced adolescence, the world will have recognized that there are better ways to regulate the economy of mind than pretending that its products are something like pig iron. But even if it hasn\'t, I am certain that the global human discourse will be less encumbered than it would have been had not Cory Doctorow blessed our current little chunk of space/time with his fierce endeavors. 

And whatever it is that might be \"contained\" in the following.

$$$$ 
 
Microsoft Research DRM Talk
 
(This talk was originally given to Microsoft\'s Research Group and other interested parties from within the company at their Redmond offices on June 17, 2004.) 

Greetings fellow pirates! Arrrrr! 

I\'m here today to talk to you about copyright, technology and DRM, I work for the Electronic Frontier Foundation on copyright stuff (mostly), and I live in London. I\'m not a lawyer -- I\'m a kind of mouthpiece/activist type, though occasionally they shave me and stuff me into my Bar Mitzvah suit and send me to a standards body or the UN to stir up trouble. I spend about three weeks a month on the road doing completely weird stuff like going to Microsoft to talk about DRM. 

I lead a double life: I\'m also a science fiction writer. That means I\'ve got a dog in this fight, because I\'ve been dreaming of making my living from writing since I was 12 years old. Admittedly, my IP-based biz isn\'t as big as yours, but I guarantee you that it\'s every bit as important to me as yours is to you. 

Here\'s what I\'m here to convince you of: 

1. That DRM systems don\'t work 

2. That DRM systems are bad for society 

3. That DRM systems are bad for business 

4. That DRM systems are bad for artists 

5. That DRM is a bad business-move for MSFT 

It\'s a big brief, this talk. Microsoft has sunk a lot of capital into DRM systems, and spent a lot of time sending folks like Martha and Brian and Peter around to various smoke-filled rooms to make sure that Microsoft DRM finds a hospitable home in the future world. Companies like Microsoft steer like old Buicks, and this issue has a lot of forward momentum that will be hard to soak up without driving the engine block back into the driver\'s compartment. At best I think that Microsoft might convert some of that momentum on DRM into angular momentum, and in so doing, save all our asses. 

Let\'s dive into it. 

-- 

1. DRM systems don\'t work 

This bit breaks down into two parts: 

1. A quick refresher course in crypto theory 

2. Applying that to DRM 

Cryptography -- secret writing -- is the practice of keeping secrets. It involves three parties: a sender, a receiver and an attacker (actually, there can be more attackers, senders and recipients, but let\'s keep this simple). We usually call these people Alice, Bob and Carol. 

Let\'s say we\'re in the days of the Caesar, the Gallic War. You need to send messages back and forth to your generals, and
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