Z:gnu-www-ja-opposing-drm--138432-AACS, the =26ldquo;Advanced Acce/en

AACS, the &ldquo;Advanced Access Content System,&rdquo; promoted by Disney, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Sony, and others, aims to restrict use of HDTV recordings&mdash;and software&mdash;so they can't be used except as these companies permit. Sony was caught last year installing a &ldquo;rootkit&rdquo; into millions of people's computers, and not telling them how to remove it. Sony has learned its lesson: it will install the &ldquo;rootkit&rdquo; in your computer before you get it, and you won't be able to remove it. This plan explicitly requires devices to be &ldquo;robust&rdquo;&mdash;meaning you cannot change them. Its implementors will surely want to include GPL-covered software, trampling freedom No. 1. This scheme should get &ldquo;AACSed,&rdquo; and a boycott of HD DVD and Blu-ray has already been announced (http://bluraysucks.com/ [archived]).