Defective by Design (DBD) is an anti-
DRM
DRM may refer to:
Government, military and politics
* Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd
* Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar
* Direction du renseignement milita ...
initiative by the
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft ( ...
.
Digital rights management
Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works ...
(DRM) technology restricts users' ability to freely use their purchased movies, music, literature, software, and hardware in ways they are accustomed to with ordinary non-restricted media (such as
book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical a ...
s and audio
compact discs). As a result, DRM has been described as "digital ''restrictions'' management" or "digital ''restrictions mechanisms''" by opponents.
[Digital Restrictions Management](_blank)
DRM.info. Retrieved on 2013-07-29.[What is DRM?](_blank)
Defective by Design. Retrieved on 2013-07-29.
Gnu.org (2013-02-28). Retrieved on 2013-07-29.
The philosophy of the initiative is that DRM is designed to be deliberately defective, to restrict the use of the product. This, they claim, cripples the future of digital freedom. The group aims to target "Big Media, unhelpful manufacturers, and DRM distributors" and to bring public awareness of the issue and increase participation in the initiative. It represents one of the first efforts of the Free Software Foundation to find common cause with mainstream social activists, and to encourage free software advocates to become socially involved. As of late 2006, the campaign was claiming over 12,000 registered members.
View on the impact of DRM
DRM is used to encrypt various multimedia products (including audio, video, and console games) and is intended to restrict the uses of a product to those the rights holders intend. Examples of DRM functionality include limiting or prohibiting duplication of media to attempt to prevent copyright infringement or lawful archiving and sharing of media, encrypting or blocking access to a system's input or output to prevent the usage of non-licensed products, such as a competitor's hardware or media, preventing users from duplicating a CD or a DVD, preventing
advertisement
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
s on DVDs from being skipped, and preventing 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
The analog hole (also known as the analog loophole or analog gap) is a perceived fundamental and inevitable vulnerability in copy protection schemes for noninteractive works in digital formats which can be exploited to duplicate copy-protected wor ...
. For others, DRM might prevent them from using media in legal ways.
[The Escapist : News : Ubisoft DRM Authentication Servers Go Down](_blank)
Escapistmagazine.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-29.
In addition to restricting copying of DRM-restricted media, DRM can allow a computer to systematically disobey its owner.
History
Defective By Design is a joint effort by the
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft ( ...
and
CivicActions, a company that develops online advocacy campaigns. The chief organizers are Gregory Heller of CivicActions,
Peter T. Brown, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, and
Henry Poole, a CivicActions member who is also a director of the
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft ( ...
.
The campaign was launched in May 2006, with an anti-DRM protest at
WinHEC
The Windows Hardware Engineering Community (WinHEC) is a series of technical conferences and workshops, where Microsoft elaborates on its hardware plans for Windows devices.
The WinHEC from 1992 to 2008, which stood for Windows Hardware Engineerin ...
. The protest featured
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft ( ...
(FSF) members in yellow
hazmat suit
A hazmat suit (hazardous materials suit) is a piece of personal protective equipment that consists of an impermeable whole-body garment worn as protection against hazardous materials. Such suits are often combined with self-contained breathing a ...
s "handing out pamphlets explaining that
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washingt ...
products are – in the words of the key slogan for the campaign – 'defective by design' because of the DRM technologies included in them".
Since then, the campaign has launched a number of actions with varying degrees of success. The campaign claims that its phone-in campaign against the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
and related organizations around the world resulted in thousands of calls from people questioning the industry's position on DRM. On the other hand, efforts to meet with Bono of U2, a prominent supporter of Apple's DRM-regulated
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...
, have so far met with no success. However, four major record labels dropped their pending lawsuits and joined with Apple and Microsoft to eliminate Digital Rights Management from music sales.
DefectiveByDesign.org proclaimed October 3, 2006, to be a "
Day Against DRM", and organized several events outside key
Apple stores in the US and the UK.
Hazmat suits were again 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
The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes wa ...
media players.
On January 30, 2007, the campaign organized along with the
BadVista campaign at the
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
. Protesters in hazmat suits then handed literature to attendants about the dangers of Windows Vista's Digital Rights Management and Trusted Computing features, as well as handing out CDs containing a
free software
Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...
replacement for
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
.
Campaigns
Tagging campaign
Since 2007, the Defective by Design site encourages users to use the
tagging feature of
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
,
Slashdot
''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and evalu ...
and on other sites that allow tagging, to mark certain products with the 'defectivebydesign' tag.
Items targeted include
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays DVDs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. Some DVD players will also play audio CDs. DVD players are connected to a television to wa ...
s, DRM-restricted DVD titles, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles,
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
and higher, the
Zune
Zune is a discontinued line of digital media products and services marketed by Microsoft from November 2006 until its discontinuation in June 2012. Zune consisted of a line of portable media players, digital media player software for Windows PC ...
, and the
iPod
The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes wa ...
.
#CancelNetflix campaign
In 2013, the Defective by Design site started a tagging campaign against
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a film ...
, an online commercial stream service that developed new implementations of DRM for the web,
to challenge
W3C
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working to ...
's decision of introducing DRM to web technologies.
Despite the popularity of the campaign, W3C showed greenlight for DRM.
See also
*
Broadcast Protection Discussion Group
*
Free Software Foundation anti-Windows campaigns
Free Software Foundation anti-Windows campaigns are the events targeted against a line of Microsoft Windows operating systems. They are paralleling the Defective by Design campaign against digital rights management technologies, but they instead ta ...
*
Hardware restriction
A hardware restriction (sometimes called hardware DRM) is low-level protection enforced by electronic components. The hardware restriction scheme may protect against physical or malware attacks or complement a digital rights management system imp ...
s
*
Planned obsolescence
In economics and industrial design, planned obsolescence (also called built-in obsolescence or premature obsolescence) is a policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life or a purposely frail design, so tha ...
*
Tivoization
Tivoization is the practice of designing hardware that incorporates software under the terms of a copyleft software license like the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), but uses hardware restrictions or digital rights management (DRM) to preven ...
*
Trusted Computing
Trusted Computing (TC) is a technology developed and promoted by the Trusted Computing Group. The term is taken from the field of trusted systems and has a specialized meaning that is distinct from the field of Confidential Computing. The core id ...
References
External links
*
*
{{GNU
Free Software Foundation
Intellectual property activism
Information technology organizations based in North America
Creative Commons-licensed websites
Copyright campaigns
Digital rights management
Hardware restrictions
Digital rights
2006 neologisms
American advertising slogans