[keithb-]

I definitely do not understand what's going on here. As noted in the appeal posted by Doctorow [1], DMCA prohibits bypassing DRM so this W3C "approval" seems completely unnecessary. If it's oversight that you want, then a W3C standard isn't the way. A W3C standard is just a description of system behavior; it doesn't carry with it any penalties for deviation. If it did, I would have sued all the browser devs who delayed support HTML5 elements citing compensatory damages: my livelihood was affected!

At the same time, the appeal seems misaligned because (again) the specification may be superior in accessibility, privacy, etc. but the implementation can be total crap. What option do you have? Open a ticket for Chrome or Firefox? Stop watching Fox News because their plugin is buggy and slow?

This whole thing seems like a polite disagreement among intellectuals. The EFF expected more from Berners-Lee but it turns out that he chose to act differently.

[1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/notice-w3c-effs-appeal...