Defective by Design

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Defective by Design is an anti-DRM initiative by the Free Software Foundation.

Advocacy poster

1 Goals
2 History
3 Impact of DRM
4 External links

[edit] Goals

The philosophy is that DRM (Digital Rights Management sometimes called Digital Restrictions Management) is designed to be "defective" to restrict the use of the product. This, they claim, cripples the future of digital freedom. Their aim is to target "Big Media, unhelpful manufacturers, and DRM distributors" and their goal is to bring public awareness of the issue and invite everyone to join the initiative.

[edit] History

The campaign was launched in summer 2006 (the first blog post appears to be from May 2006 [1]) with an anti-DRM protest at WinHEC featuring FSF members in yellow hazmat suits "handing out pamphlets explaining that Microsoft products are — in the words of the key slogan for the campaign — 'defective by design' because of the DRM technologies included in them."[2]

DefecitveByDesign.org proclaimed October 3rd 2006 to be a "Day Against DRM", and organised several events outside key Apple stores in the US and the UK [3]. Again hazmat suits were worn by protesters and leaflets were handed out to the public explaining Apple's use of DRM in their iTunes music store and on their iPod media players.[4].

[edit] Impact of DRM

DRM is encoded into various multimedia (including audio, video, and console games) and is intended to prevent copyright infringement by limiting or prohibiting duplication of the multimedia. DRM can prevent users from duplicating a CD or a DVD, prevent someone watching a DVD from skipping a preview, or create problems with interoperability between competing products. Although tech-savvy users are often able to find a way around DRM, this can be difficult and may require use of the analog hole. For others DRM might not only prevent them from using their media in illegal ways, but possibly also from legal use.