Why would name brand manufacturers such as Microsoft, Apple and Intel create product with an intentionally limited range of use? When you purchase music shouldn’t you be able to play it anytime and anywhere you wish? DRM, Digital Rights Management (also known as Digital Restrictions Management) restricts users’ access to movies, music, literature and software, indeed all forms of digital data. It is also an integral part of the design of the products of many major hardware/software manufacturers.
Back in 2006, Defective by Design felt that the practice of Digital Rights Management was not kosher and certainly displayed, at the very least, a questionable sense of sportsmanship. In response they created a grassroots media campaign mixed up with some strategically placed ‘flash mobs’ designed to outrageously inseminate the other side of the story into the mainstream.
Enter Holocosmos: we were asked to design a downloadable poster that would launch the campaign. The Solution: We inverted and subverted some traditional Apple iconography to create an icon for the movement. With a few messages to Bono, a story in Newsweek and some innovative tagging at Amazon the Defective by Design campaign continues to educate and catapult forward in the most intriguing of ways.
In a series of nationally-publicized protests in Hazmat Suits in front of Apple Stores, the group used these Posters to gain national attention for the cause. The poster art is made available to protesters as a digital download from the DefectiveByDesign.org website and can be purchased on T-Shirts from the Defective By Design Store on Goodstorm.
Do you know where your music is?
