On October 4, Gregory Heller of Defective by Design came to Cardozo to give a talk on DRM, Digital Rights Management. Defective by Design is an anti-DRM campaign set out to target the media, manufacturers, and DRM distributors.

For those of you who don’t know, Digital Rights Management basically refers to user restrictions placed on various forms of electronic media such as software, electronic books, music, and movies. For example, songs you buy off iTunes are protected by DRM. In his talk, Heller argued that restrictions on electronic media is like restrictions on who you could share your CDs or books with. If printed media lacks such restrictions, why should the electronic forms have the same restrictions? Heller spoke briefly about Amazon Unboxed, which allows users to rent movies that can only be viewed on a single device or buy movies that can only be viewed with DRM-compatible DVD players, as well as Apple’s iTunes, which has known issues regarding the only available music format (AAC).

Heller gave his views on why DRM is a bad idea, and then opened the floor up to questions. Some members of the audience brought up the idea that if you do not like DRM restrictions, you have the right not to spend your money on media that contains such restrictions. Heller argued that while artists have the right to protect their media, be it software, music, or movies, as they choose, DRM can actually be harmful to their purpose — making money and gaining exposure.

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