We are a participatory and grassroots campaign exposing DRM-encumbered devices and media for what they really are: Defective by Design. We are working together to eliminate DRM as a threat to innovation in media, the privacy of readers, and freedom for computer users. Our actions involve identifying and targeting defective products, pressuring media retailers and hardware manufacturers to stop supporting DRM, exposing the immense concentration of power over media created by DRM, and raising awareness of DRM to libraries, schools, and individuals around the world.
What is DRM?
”The motive for DRM schemes is to increase profits for those who impose them, but their profit is a side issue when millions of people’s freedom is at stake; desire for profit, though not wrong in itself, cannot justify denying the public control over its technology. Defending freedom means thwarting DRM.”
— Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation
Get Involved & Take Action
Defective by Design has been protesting against DRM since 2006, and we've have had major success in the area of music. All major record labels have given up trying to enforce DRM schemes on music, but DRM is becoming a stronger force in ebooks, videos, and gaming. If we want to end this exploitative and anticompetitive practice, we must do something. Click here to take action.
History
Defective by Design is a campaign launched by the Free Software Foundation in 2006. After months of campaigning, Defective by Design declared Tuesday October 3rd 2006, an international "Day Against DRM". With more than 10,000 technologists having joined in the campaign and pledged to take direct action to stop DRM, and with more than 200 "actions" planned across the globe on October 3rd, we had achieved our goal of raising public awareness to the threats posed by DRM. Now we are moving from mere awareness of DRM to rejection of DRM. DRM technology is still a growing problem being used to restrict individuals' use of their own copies of published works. To enforce these restrictions, DRM software, and now hardware, must monitor and control a computer users' behavior, and we are here to fight back.