DIY Kids Book Pokes Fun at DRM

A Canadian writer/artist who goes by the handle MCM has come up with a clever way to point out the shortcomings of imposing tight digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on electronic books and music: a freely available children’s book called The Pig and the Box (1.6MB PDF) about “a pig who finds a magic box that can replicate anything you put into it,” and tries to control how the other animals use their copied fruits and vegetables:

“Wait a second!” said Pig. “What are you going to do with those apples? Ducks don’t eat apples!”

“Well —” began Duck.

“You LIE!” shouted Pig, and he got a bucket from his house.

“The apples go in here,” Pig said. “This is a magic bucket. If anyone but YOU tries to take an apple out of this bucket, all the apples will EXPLODE!“

The story is distributed under a Creative Commons license, which means there’s no magic buckets; you can do just about anything you want with MCM’s story except sell it yourself. (Thanks, BoingBoing!)

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