[A2k] Re: A2k digest, Vol 1 #375 - 12 msgs

[Sasha Costanza-Chock]

No term is 'neutral.' All terms are chosen for what they will highlight
or hide. A good example is the term 'collateral damage.' In a certain
twisted sense someone might argue that it is more 'neutral' (designed
not to induce emotional reaction) than 'murdered civilians,' but that
would be a quite cynical argument.

In a similar way, we should pay attention to the 'value valence' of the
terms we choose to use...

DRM is widely used and understood to refer to technological restrictions
on access to digital information, TPM is not. At the same time, I agree
with the argument that 'Digital Rights Management' is a frame that is
friendly to the interests of the copyright maximalists.

How about keeping the acronym but reinscribing it with a meaning that
foregrounds what we are trying to say about the technology?

Say, Digital Restriction Measures (DRM)


 > "Technological Protection Measures" is a pretty "neutral"
 > phrasing.
 >
 > "Technological" and "measure" are neutral, but "protection" is not;
 > it's one of the terms we should decline to apply to describe what
 > copyright does.
 >
 > I sometimes call them "technological restriction measures".


Sasha Costanza-Chock

schock AT riseup.net