Green groups and social justice orgs fight DRM

Peter Brown, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, sez, "An international coalition of environmental and social justice
groups have signed a statement condemning DRM and specifically the DRM in Microsoft's Windows Vista, looking to promote awareness of computer user freedom.
Groups and individuals who support the statement are being asked to add their own signatures at http://freesoftwarefreesociety.org. The coalition hope that this statement will help raise awareness to these important issues amongst social activists and NGOs outside of the technology field."

In January and February of this year, the Green Party and Greenpeace issued warnings about the tremendous threat posed to the environment by the disposable computer mentality promoted in Microsoft's $500-million Windows Vista marketing campaign. Vista's steep hardware requirements mean that to use it, most people will have to throw their current computer into a landfill and buy a new one.

While these environmental consequences alone are sufficient reason for many to reject Vista, the disposable computer mentality is a symptom of a larger problem–one that should concern all social activists. That problem is the dependency of activists on software owned and exclusively controlled by entities that design their software in ways directly opposed to grassroots social change. No matter what kind of specific change they are working for in society, activists need the freedom to organize and communicate. Yet each time an activist turns on a Vista computer, she is nominating Microsoft and Big Media as exclusive gatekeepers to this freedom.