DMCA exemption commenting process broken beyond repair

Every three years, supporters of user rights are forced to go through a Kafkaesque process fighting for exemptions from the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). We explain this process more fully in our announcement of the comments we filed this year. In short, under the DMCA's rules, everything not permitted is forbidden.

In DMCA anti-circumvention fight, we don't want exemptions, we want justice

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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has one particularly draconian measure criminalizing the circumvention of digital restrictions management (DRM). This section, which appears in law as 17 U.S.C §1201 states that "[n]o person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work". This facet of the law completely violates users' rights to their own devices, and their legitimate use rights to copyrighted works.

Living free: recent updates to the DRM-free Living Guide

We've just finished another round of updates to the Guide to DRM-free Living, with tons of new entries for publishers, artists, platforms, and other providers of digital media who distribute files free of Digital Restrictions Management. The guide now contains over 200 entries for places to get DRM-free ebooks, movies, and music. Included among the new additions are Leanpub, a platform for authors to write and publish programming books, Rebellion Publishing, which sells graphic novels and comics, and Vimeo On Demand, a platform for creators to sell their videos.

Help us shut down DRM in 2015

Santa's helpers (activists) about to distribute the Giving Guide to commuters

Santa's helpers (activists) about to distribute the Giving Guide to commuters

I'm writing this with chilly fingers, having just come in from handing out our DRM-Free Giving Guide on the sidewalks around Cambridge, MA's central shopping district with some other activists. A few of the passersby were savvy about the issues of digital freedom and privacy, but for most, it was the first time they'd heard of ethical technology. Interacting with both types of people was meaningful -- sometimes hilarious as in the case of the man that said "I'm already ethical enough" -- and it reminded me why the Defective by Design campaign is so important: though DRM touches the lives of almost everyone we know, a disappointing few even know what it is.

Print this guide

We've just released a printable version of our online Giving Guide, which helps gift-givers choose tech gifts that are DRM-free and respect recipients' rights as computer users. The Guide is hosted on the Web site of the Free Software Foundation, which runs Defective by Design. The printable version, which is available in color as well as black and white, makes sharing and translating easy so the Giving Guide can spread far and wide.

Organize a Giving Guide Giveaway this December

In the flurry of holiday advertising that happens at the end of the year, many people are swept into buying DRM-laden gifts that take more than they give. Each holiday season the Free Software Foundation -- which runs Defective By Design -- releases a Giving Guide to make it easy for you to choose tech gifts that are DRM-free and respect recipients' rights as computer users.

Fight the hype with this Apple Watch graphic

Opened a tech news site today? If so, you're probably up to your neck in buzz about today's Apple keynote. Front and center were Apple's new devices, the Apple Watch and iPhone 6. They're pretty and they're trendy, but, as we've been saying for years, those sleek metal finishes hold some of the most sophisticated and unjust restrictions around. On top of that, the company that sells them is a patent bully solely focused on control of the industry and its customers.

Looking ahead to the next International Day Against DRM - May 6, 2015

On May 6, 2015, the global anti-DRM community will hold our biggest display of unity so far - the 9th annual International Day Against DRM.

This year's International Day Against DRM featured a variety of events in Brazil, Bangladesh, Portugal, and the United States, and we're planning for 2015's Day to be even bigger.

Get your friends together for the International Day Against DRM (May 6, 2014)

During the last year, we've seen Digital Restrictions Management creep farther into the world of technology (including coffee makers and cars), even as we build a stronger and stronger community to fight it. A growing number of people are living within a box constrained by DRM without even knowing it.

Don't let the MPAA buy the Web

Last week, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) became a paying and governing member of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (no, seriously).

If there were any doubts that W3C was in bed with Big Hollywood, now it couldn't be more obvious. Together, W3C, the MPAA, and a handful of the world's most powerful web companies are preparing to build Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) deep into our public Web standards. We must stop them.

Give freely this Cyber Monday: Introducing the 2013 Giving Guide

On Cyber Monday, millions of Americans will take to the Internet
in search of the newest gadgets to bestow upon their loved ones.
Most of these "gifts" are trojan horses that will spy on their
recipients, prevent them from doing what they want with their
device, or maybe even block access to their favorite books or
music.

New iPhones put more polish on Apple's restrictions

The announcement of Apple's new iPhone releases marks yet another highly anticipated product launch from the technology giant. As expected, the new iPhones will be faster, more powerful, and continue to hide the various anti-user restrictions behind a sleek and seductive user interface. Each release of a product or operating system from Apple means the latest and greatest they have to offer, including the strongest Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technologies yet.

Customers streaming away from Netflix

Remember Turn off the TV Week? A chance each summer to switch off the boob tube, recover from brain rot, and maybe even spend some extra time out in the sunshine? This summer, we have an even better reason to spend less time in front of a screen: the video streaming giant Netflix is collaborating with the World Wide Web Consortium to destroy Web freedom.

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