To tackle plastic waste, tackle DRM

Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), the "handcuffs" restricting how you can use most digital media, isn't just an issue that affects files, formats, websites, and streaming (dis)services. It has consequences in the physical world, too. Perhaps none of them are more notorious than DRM-locked printer ink cartridges. You buy them, but arbitrary restrictions set by the manufacturer like specific page counts force you to toss them out prematurely, even if they can continue to work well for months or years more. Landfills needlessly grow, increasing the spread of microplastics and other harmful chemicals as these cartridges disintegrate, potentially even ending up in our food chain. All this simply because of software that restricts our freedom.

It's been encouraging to see forward-thinking city councils like that of Los Angeles do the right thing and ban a kind of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) so ubiquitous that we often forget it is DRM. Whether physical or not, the worst part about DRM isn't the daily inconveniences it gives us. It's how we collectively forget that things could be a different way.

Outside of aggressive industry lobbying, there's no reason these limitations on using ink cartridges and any other forms of Digital Restrictions Management need to exist. In each and every case, they're an artificial limitation placed on our technological freedom. When considering DRM, it's important to remember that it is someone's job to make a piece of technology or program malfunction. That limitation is intentionally designed by the corporation behind the product. In that sense, it is a "feature," only one purposefully unhelpful, and what we've called an "anti-feature" in the past. In short, it's defective by design

It doesn't matter how widespread any one particular form of DRM is: we can still end it, whether with enough justified public outcry or concerted effort. The situation with ink cartridges isn't so far removed from the "K-Cup debacle". A decade ago, Keurig released the Keurig 2.0, which only accepted K-Cups with special, proprietary ink, and made it impossible to brew third-party grounds. After intense backlash from their customers and people around the globe — showing it's a bad idea to put any kind of middleman between someone and their coffee — Keurig walked back the restriction. We can do this with ink cartridges, with Spotify, or any other form of DRM as well.

At the Defective by Design campaign and the FSF generally, our argument against DRM originates from the philosophical basis of our principles, a way of spelling out the basic rights and freedoms every computer user deserves. Simply wanting to minimize electronic waste is as good of a reason as any for rejecting DRM, and encouraging others to do the same.

If you want to encourage your (US) city council or board of aldermen to adopt a similar measure, we recommend writing a letter like the following:

Dear [Name],

I am writing to urge the city council to take action against ink cartridges restricted by Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) based on the extreme and unnecessary amount of electronic waste produced by these devices and the harm it does to customers and the environment.

As you know, modern printer cartridges artificially disable themselves according to arbitrary criteria set by the manufacturer, whether that's a specific number of page counts, a "tripwire" signaling third-party maintenance has been done on the printer itself, or some specific date after first activation. The result is to often leave people no other option than to throw away perfectly good cartridges, regardless of their current level of ink.

This is just one way in which technology deprives us of basic freedoms we are all entitled to. The software that powers printers is no different than the software powering computers and cell phones: it should be free (as in freedom) for the community to study, share, and build for themselves.

I encourage the city to follow the example recently set by the Los Angeles City Council, which voted to cut down on electronic waste and protect their constituents from harmful practices in December 2025.

Sincerely, [Your Name]

In the meantime, keep an eye on the Defective by Design campaign as we prepare for the next International Day Against DRM, which we've set for July 17, 2026. It's our way of "commemorating" the most infamous event in the history of Digital Restrictions Management: Amazon's remote deletion of copies of 1984 from their customer's Swindles. Stand with us against DRM and for user freedom — we'll see you in July.

ekokao's blog