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IDAD 2014
Okay, so I tricked you.
IDAD really stands for International Day Against DRM. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. The name already sounds ominous enough, but let me tell you why it's important to watch out for, avoid, and stand up against DRM.
It's used in proprietary (nonfree) software to limit the users' capabilities. For example, in the program I gave you, I (perhaps poorly) showed how forcing the user to be authenticated via the Internet is annoying. But it's so much more than annoying. The fact is, that kind of programming is an attack on your freedoms. You have a right to use your software for whatever you want, and those developers are taking extra measures to make sure you don't do anything they didn't want you to.
If you'd like to learn more, click here.
If you want to see this program perform without DRM, download the GPL version here.
This was all part of defectivebydesign.org's Day Against DRM event. They asked participants to create blog posts or videos to spread awareness, but I thought it was all a little cliché. So, I made my own program to show the difference between software with and without DRM. Of course this example is very biased, since the DRM program doesn't even really authenticate with a server. The point was that forcing users to authenticate restricts their right to free usage of the software and gets in the way of an otherwise "good" application.
The non-DRM version of iDad is licensed under the GNU General Public License, so it is free software. You can get the source code and modify it, or I'll happily take payments if you want this to be a functioning program that's actually worth someone's time. If you want to play around with it, you can download a runnable version here.
If you have any questions, please contact me.
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