DRM and Vista: Say NO to Digital Oppression
@ 07 Jan 2008 03:13

It's been a rather hectic week for me, a bit more than usual. The reason is that while my team and I are still working on the "Be Integrated" video which will be the next single featured in a clip from my album Utopia, we also just finished editing another one we decided to shoot at the beginning of this week. And this one is very special to me. It's called "DRM and Vista: Say No to Digital Oppression".

It allowed me to share my views on DRM techology incorporated into Vista, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. We shot the video as a way to promote the fight against DRM so we could have a useful tool to inform people about what is going on right now in their computers. This video can be embedded or linked on any other web sites without restrictions as my team at MoonDaze Productions and I decided to release it to public domain. The clip was posted on many sites and here are some of the direct links where you can view it:


http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1577469

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RvT6Ghe98mM

http://revver.com/video/512370/drm-and-vista-say-no-to-digital-oppression/

http://breckstewart.buzznet.com/user/video/


Our goal was never to make money off this but rather find a way to get people informed. I am very proud of this video even if it was done on the spur of the moment as I am very busy shooting and producing my next video Be Integrated. But the energy spent on it was totally worth it. We don't expect miracles from this but even if one person gets informed about the evil of DRM technology, we will be very satisfied. I must admit it was fun to speak about a subject dear to my heart and inform people. We shot 30 minutes of footage and reduced it to a 10 min 50s. uncut version and a 9 min. 53 sec. that was cut to accomodate the length limit imposed on youtube.com I didn't rehearse what I was going to say, I just talked and talked and tried not to sound too much like an idiot. lol


The thing is that I am rather well informed about DRM so it was easy to just speak from my heart and also, I admit I am a talking machine so all you have to do is press the on button and I can dish it out all day long, must be from my television host days I guess. It is so important to get the information out there because many people are not even aware of DRM or how it can really cause them major headaches in a not so distant future as most new computers are already sold with Vista installed on it as the default operating system.


Therefore, they will simply accept it and it's only when they start to experience problems that they will realize that something might be working against them underneath the hood of that shiny new machine they just bought for a small fortune I might add. This is why I can't just sit idle and do nothing while so many consumers can be taken advantage of because they are not aware of what is going on. I just hope that in my tiny little way, I might make a difference. Right now, I am knee-deep into shooting my next single. Since I also do a lot of work behind the scenes as well, it helps me stay focused on the whole chain of events that have to happen in order for a video to be made. Every task is important and I am not one to downplay the importance of every person in my organization.

We simply have no money so everything is a challenge to say the least and we are still looking for other people to help us but I am lucky in having found 2 friends who have been with me for a long while and can be trusted totally. Be Integrated also revolves around DRM technology as the storyline's main focus but takes a lot longer to shoot and edit because of all the post-production needed to build the animation and special effects. We still haven't found the right girl or any other person willing to appear in the clip.

And since the deadline is rapidly approaching, I might end up being the only featured in the video. This is not my first choice of course but without money, we simply can't afford to pay people much and most of them have unrealistic expectations about the money they can earn by appearing in a video production. It's always been my main problem through all my projects, finding people to either help me do the tasks or appear in the video with me. Money is always the issue and my cie MoonDaze Productions is very low on cash so it's a challenge which we have had to face head on since beginning. I can't even afford to pay my 2 associates so they do this out of their beliefs in my art and that one day, we might actually start to earn some money.

This is why everytime they do something to help me, I am so grateful. I have no idea still if and when I will earn enough to pay all those mounting debts. But suffice it to say that I believe in what I do so much that even if I have to work at en endless array of other jobs to earn a living, I still spend every waking moment thinking about this as my main focus in life.

And now with this battle against DRM, I admit it gave me a new strength and kicked me in the rear just when I needed it. I was yearning for something more than just dishing out songs and shooting videos. I wanted to make a difference and this cause is perfect for me because it affects me personally yes but also, it can potentially hurt any customer out there who simply trust a corporation that might end up taking advantage of them.

So please, get informed and pass the word around, it's for the greater good to preserve our ability to use our computers as we please.

We all deserve it.

No DRM
No Vista
No Blu-Ray
Say no to Digital Oppression

Breck Stewart: Official Site http://www.breckstewart.com