Are you giving your loved ones holiday gifts they can use freely, or gifts which put someone else in control?

In the flurry of holiday advertising that happens at the end of the year, many people are swept into buying DRM-laden gifts that take more than they give. Each holiday season the Free Software Foundation -- which runs Defective By Design -- releases a Giving Guide to make it easy for you to choose tech gifts that are DRM-free and respect recipients' rights as computer users.

Opened a tech news site today? If so, you're probably up to your neck in buzz about today's Apple keynote. Front and center were Apple's new devices, the Apple Watch and iPhone 6. They're pretty and they're trendy, but, as we've been saying for years, those sleek metal finishes hold some of the most sophisticated and unjust restrictions around. On top of that, the company that sells them is a patent bully solely focused on control of the industry and its customers.

On May 6, 2015, the global anti-DRM community will hold our biggest display of unity so far - the 9th annual International Day Against DRM.

This year's International Day Against DRM featured a variety of events in Brazil, Bangladesh, Portugal, and the United States, and we're planning for 2015's Day to be even bigger.

Only a week after the International Day Against DRM, Mozilla has announced that it will support Digital Restrictions Management in its Firefox Browser. The browser will have a built-in utility that automatically fetches and installs DRM from Adobe.

Yesterday, people all over the world spoke out against Digital Restrictions Management with flyering, rallies, teach-ins, and sales on DRM-free media. Our eighth International Day Against DRM was a smashing success. Here are some of the highlights from yesterday's actions:

Powerful entertainment and technology companies use Digital
Restrictions Management to restrict our use of digital media. We
organize and build tools to protect our access to it. Our opponents
are strong enough to have the government on their side in most
countries, but when we come together, we are strong too.

During the last year, we've seen Digital Restrictions Management creep farther into the world of technology (including coffee makers and cars), even as we build a stronger and stronger community to fight it. A growing number of people are living within a box constrained by DRM without even knowing it.

Last week, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) became a paying and governing member of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (no, seriously).

If there were any doubts that W3C was in bed with Big Hollywood, now it couldn't be more obvious. Together, W3C, the MPAA, and a handful of the world's most powerful web companies are preparing to build Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) deep into our public Web standards. We must stop them.

Ever wonder if you're the only one concerned about DRM when
you're doing your holiday shopping? We hit the streets yesterday
to make sure that you aren't.

On Cyber Monday, millions of Americans will take to the Internet
in search of the newest gadgets to bestow upon their loved ones.
Most of these "gifts" are trojan horses that will spy on their
recipients, prevent them from doing what they want with their
device, or maybe even block access to their favorite books or
music.

The announcement of Apple's new iPhone releases marks yet another highly anticipated product launch from the technology giant. As expected, the new iPhones will be faster, more powerful, and continue to hide the various anti-user restrictions behind a sleek and seductive user interface. Each release of a product or operating system from Apple means the latest and greatest they have to offer, including the strongest Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technologies yet.

In any discussion concerning DRM, there are bound to be honest questions and misconceptions that keep being repeated. Without a resource to accurately respond to them, some small misconceptions can turn into popular belief.

"#CancelNetflix I used it and used to love it. But keep your hands off DRM in HTML5. Not cool. I'm stopping my rel. with you." -- @jordiburcas*

Remember Turn off the TV Week? A chance each summer to switch off the boob tube, recover from brain rot, and maybe even spend some extra time out in the sunshine? This summer, we have an even better reason to spend less time in front of a screen: the video streaming giant Netflix is collaborating with the World Wide Web Consortium to destroy Web freedom.

Netflix just announced that they are streaming videos in HTML5, only in browsers with "Premium Video Extensions". You know what that means -- Digital Restrictions Management (DRM).

The seventh annual International Day Against DRM featured a glamorous
petition delivery, awareness-raising events on three continents, and
ebook sales from prominent DRM-free publishers. Some of the Day's
highlights included:

In celebration of International Day Against DRM today, we rolled out the red carpet at W3C to deliver your petition signatures. Internet freedom's most stylish gathered to present W3C with an award for "Best Supporting Role in 'The Hollyweb'," accompanied by over 22,500 verified signatures from members of the public who oppose a proposal that would weave Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) into the fabric of the Web.

The fight to keep DRM out of HTML is heating up. This Friday, Defective by Design will pay a visit to the Cambridge, MA, office of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to hand-deliver our petition against the Encrypted Media Extensions proposal (EME).

International Day Against DRM is this Friday, May 3rd. People all over the world are going to be showing their opposition to DRM, and you can join them!

Organize a local event today and we'll help you promote it. An event can be as simple as tabling at your campus, handing out information at a library or bookstore that offers ebooks with DRM. Find out if there's a local event near you. If there isn't, get one started!

Today Defective by Design, through the Free Software Foundation, joined twenty-six other organizations in releasing a joint letter to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Web's standards-setting body, condemning Encrypted Media Extensions (EME).

Hollywood is at it again. Its latest ploy to take over the Web? Use its influence at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to weave Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) into HTML5 — in other words, into the very fabric of the Web. Millions of Internet users came together to defeat SOPA/PIPA, but now Big Media moguls are going through non-governmental channels to try to sneak digital restrictions into every interaction we have online.

Soon after announcing the big expansion and complete overhaul of our Guide to DRM-free Living, we also announced the DRM-free label, an effort to create recognizable branding for providers of DRM-free files to quickly communicate to users that they don't have to worry about being encumbered by restrictive technologies such as Digital Restrictions Management.

The Book Industry Communication is holding a debate on Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) in Strand on March 4th. Can you attend and vote DRM-free?

The "debate", which will include a panel of experts, asks participants to vote for one of two statements about DRM. They are:

Online self-publishing platforms have lowered barriers for authors to get their works published, giving rise to a new kind of literature that works without big publishers. Lulu is one of the most popular solutions for writers to easily sell their works in print or as ebooks. A few years ago, they defended their DRM-encumbered ebooks, but they have just announced that they are saying goodbye to DRM.

The fight against DRM often pits us against some of the biggest companies and the most dominant ways of thinking in the technology business. What gives us the independence to speak out -- and the power to make your voice heard --is the support of our members. Now, we need your help to keep Defective by Design strong in 2013.

by Libby Reinish and Kÿra

Holiday season is upon us, which means a bombardment of advertising for the latest and greatest tech toys, and the onslaught of enticing deals is extremely effective. On Cyber Monday, hordes of virtual shoppers took to the Web in search of the newest gadgets to bestow upon their loved ones.