Free Software Foundation—FSF led sustained anti-DRM advocacy through Defective by Design campaign and DMCA exemption efforts
The FSF's Defective by Design campaign continued its longstanding fight against Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) through annual International Day Against DRM events from 2020-2023, targeting streaming services (2020), Disney+ (2021), digital sharing restrictions (2022), and DRM in public libraries via OverDrive and Follett Destiny (2023). The FSF also successfully pushed for new DMCA anticircumvention exemptions in 2021, helping secure legal protections for users who need to bypass DRM for ethical and legitimate purposes. The campaign frames DRM as a threat to innovation, privacy, and user freedom.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge Access & Information Freedom | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| Right to Repair | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| User Autonomy | +toward | primary | +1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | +0.453 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (medium ×1) × confidence (0.68)
Evidence (2 signals)
FSF held 17th annual International Day Against DRM targeting library DRM
The FSF announced its Defective by Design campaign's 17th annual International Day Against DRM on November 28, 2023, protesting DRM technology's hold over public libraries, exemplified by corporations like OverDrive and Follett Destiny.
FSF helped secure new DMCA anticircumvention exemptions protecting users from DRM abuse
The FSF was one of several activist organizations that successfully pushed for new exemptions to the DMCA anticircumvention rules, which make breaking DRM illegal even for ethical and legitimate purposes. The FSF helped bring public awareness to the exemption process.