“The immense

popularity of sites like YouTube has unexpectedly turned Flash Video (FLV) into one of the de facto

standards for Internet video. The proliferation of sites using FLV has been a boon for remix culture,

as creators made their own versions of posted videos. And thus far there has been no widespread DRM

standard for Flash or Flash Video formats; indeed, most sites that use these formats simply serve

standalone, unencrypted files via ordinary web servers.

Now Adobe, which controls Flash and

Flash Video, is trying to change that with the introduction of DRM restrictions in version 9 of its

Flash Player and version 3 of its Flash Media Server software. Instead of an ordinary web download,

these programs can use a proprietary, secret Adobe protocol to talk to each other, encrypting the

communication and locking out non-Adobe software players and video tools. We imagine that Adobe has no

illusions that this will stop copyright infringement — any more than dozens of other DRM systems have

done so — but the introduction of encryption does give Adobe and its customers a powerful new legal

weapon against competitors and ordinary users through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

(DMCA).”
Electronic Frontier

Foundation

This will definitely have some implications for AMV creators and those making

smash up videos for YouTube. Many AMV producers use an Adobe product, so I wonder what this might mean

for Adobe Premier?

For those of you who haven’t heard about DRM, its “”digital rights

management,” or DRM (aka content or copy protection), to lock up your digital media. These DRM

technologies do nothing to stop copyright pirates, but instead end up interfering with fans’ lawful

use of music, movies, and other copyrighted works. DRM can prevent you from making back ups of your

DVDs and music downloaded from online stores, recording your favorite TV programs, using the portable

media player of your choice, remixing clips of movies into your own home movies, and much more.” -

href="http://www.eff.org/issues/drm">Electronic Frontier Foundation