[url]https://twitter.com/w3c/status/420548145102061568[/url]
Let's get a couple of things out of the way first, just so we're on the same page here.[quote]MPAA: Motion Picture Association of America, aka. the group that wants to sue everybody for millions of dollars, kill file sharing, and take over the Internet.
W3C: World Wide Web Consortium, aka. the group of people who [generally] come up with and standardise the formats, functions, and technologies your browser implements and uses.[/quote]Why this is bad: given the reputation of the MPAA doing what it does, them joining W3C brings with it some [b][u]seriously major implications for the future of the web[/u][/b]. They will undoubtedly try to push for DRM-restricted everything on the web (although this won't/can't really work because of open-source projects like Chromium and Firefox, but may for proprietary browsers - IE, for instance). They will try to kill [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebRTC]new browser technologies[/url] that provide secure communications between browsers via peer-to-peer connections, because it makes peer connections easy to set up - you just need a browser. They will attack the openness of the web itself (think about the anonymity the web provides you).
You might think this is borderline paranoia, but [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Association_of_America#Anti-File_Sharing_efforts]have a look[/url] at what the MPAA has been up to in the past and make up your own mind.
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Bloody Americans This is the sum total of my intended participation