Topic: FTC warns companies to disclose their DRM.

[Nemesis]

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Mary Engle, an FTC Acting Deputy Director, began her remarks by warning that those who use DRM had better get serious about disclosing it and the limits that it places on products. She referenced the Sony BMG rootkit debacle, saying that "sellers who use DRM technology to enforce the terms of bargains with consumers need to be particularly careful to disclose in advance" what those bargains are.

"If your advertising giveth and your EULA taketh away," she said, "don't be surprised if the FTC comes calling."

This sort of back-and-forth continued all morning. A lawyer who works with the MPAA and RIAA said that DRM wasn't just a "necessary evil" but was actually a "key enabling technology" for the reasons that Attaway also described. It's a "useful rhetorical device" to talk about how DRM blocks people's rights, he added, but it's basically deceptive.

Just what does DRM enable ME the CUSTOMER to do that I couldn't do if it wasn't there? 

Note:  DRM blocking me from using things (or using them at all in some cases) that I buy in ways the law allows is one of my pet peeves.