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Fair enough, but shouldn't this letter be to Google and Apple and the other companies that are really making this happen?

The W3C advisory committee is composed of representatives of all the members, including Google and Apple.

There is a chance that DRM is a forgone eventuality. Why is there no competing standards committee?

Well, if they're competing with Google, and Apple, etc... would they really be competing or just existing?

Seconded. These big companies along with the likes of Hollywood are the ones pushing w3c.

Yep. It's worth keeping the w3c in mind, but they're not the source of the pressure, just subject to it at overwhelming levels.