Please consider adding info@defectivebydesign.org to your address
book, which will ensure that our messages reach you and not your spam
box.

Read and share online: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/idad-2021-counteracting-disneys-attack-culture

Dear Ruben Safir,

Our fifteenth annual International Day Against DRM (IDAD),
might be over, but the fight against Digital Restrictions
Management (DRM) continues. Each year, the Free Software
Foundation (FSF) and its Defective by Design campaign
distill what we've learned throughout the year in our anti-DRM
activism on one special day: a day especially supportive to
those retailers and publishers who rightly refuse to foist DRM on
their customers, and a day especially critical of those who
haven't gotten the message that our real digital rights cannot
be restricted. For those of us steeped in the Defective by Design
campaign, IDAD never fails to provide moments that inspire us in
our work for the coming year.

This year, those moments came in the form of reviews that
activists around the world left for Disney+ following our
call to help educate those who are about to subscribe to the
platform on what they really need to know about Disney+: not
its alleged features, not the films or television shows it might
have, but the way it infringes on their rights by its use of
DRM. We couldn't agree more with one reviewer, who said that they
wanted to be "treat[ed] as a valued client and not as a revenue
source to be exploited."

We hope this review, and others like it, are helping people to
see the true "value" of Disney+. No matter what or how many
film classics it's offering, nothing can justify the unjust
restriction of their subscribers. For those who've never heard
the term "DRM" or thought of digital restriction before, we hope
it sparked a curiosity to find out more, and start them on the
path to anti-DRM activism. At the same time, we hope that the
reviews also provided people who already do know something
about DRM with the resolve necessary to forgo it entirely and
live DRM-free. Reading the variety of messages different
members of the community shared with Disney+ and the Defective by
Design campaign has been an invigorating experience, and as
always, it's shown the dedication of the wider anti-DRM
community, beginning with our community IDAD planning
meeting and continuing through the Day Against DRM itself.

We've written previously about Disney+'s distinctive
position among other streaming platforms. Few are sponsored by
corporations with such enormous amounts of capital, and few have
grown in as short of a time as Disney+ has. Considering its vast
resources (and the amount of legal know-how it's taken to
unfairly extend copyright for decades), Disney+ is in a
position to provide a positive example to other streaming
platforms and resolve to end their practice of shackling users to
their "service" by means of DRM. Instead, and like other large
streaming providers such as Netflix, they fall back on the bogus
excuse of "copyright infringement," something that we've
long known DRM does not help prevent. That reason could also
never justify the measures taken, which involve taking rights away
from users and making them agree to give up control of their
computers in order to have access to culture and education. Yet
until they do heed the wake-up call, the Defective by Design
campaign and the worldwide community of anti-DRM activists will
be there to let them know that no use of DRM is acceptable.

Our associate membership program is what has helped us educate
the world about the harms of digital restriction and the value of
digital autonomy for years. It's also what's helped us to stage
the International day Against DRM, and powers all of the FSF's
other activism. Can you join this effort as an FSF
associate member? It will enable us to continue to create new
resources, and help carry our work against DRM into the future.

The more members we can count, the better we can help work for a world
free of digital restriction. This starts with achieving our fall goal
of 500 new members this year-end. Associate members can
select a special gift during this fundraiser, and enjoy all the
member benefits, which include merchandise discounts, a 16GB
bootable membership card, and use of our videoconferencing server.

IDAD may be over, but our work against DRM continues. We invite
you to join us in campaigning against DRM in whatever ways that
interests you, whether that's suggesting edits and making
corrections to the Guide to DRM-free Living, joining our
strategy discussions in the #dbd IRC channel, spreading
the message about the Defective by Design campaign far and wide
through the use of our printable resources, and by
continuing to speak out for your rights wherever you can. It's
certainly not too late to leave Disney+ a well-worded review! In
fact, we hope you'll continue posting reviews like this one on
all DRM providers' apps, and that you'll let us know if any of
your reviews are ever censored. We have to work together to hold
these companies more accountable.

If anything's become clear in the fifteen years we've been
leading the Day Against DRM, it's the value of what a dedicated
group of activists can accomplish. Sometimes, that "value" is
warning about how corporations impose digital restrictions, and
sometimes it's letting DRM-free publishers and storefronts know
that you value their respect for digital autonomy. Each and every
thing we can do to whittle away DRM's influence has real
importance, and contributes to a future where a piece of media
doesn't have to come at the cost of your freedom.

In solidarity,

Greg Farough

Campaigns Manager