We've all purchased songs on iTunes, or played one of Nintendo's DS/3DS line hand-held systems. But, very few of us realize just how much Apple and Nintendo have over the products after you've payed for them. DRM, or Digital Restrictions Management, are placed in the licensing of all of these making many things that would not seem illegal punishable by law or fines.

        I ask you to think about the following: would you feel that someone who burns a CD of a song they purchased on iTunes for a friend a criminal? Do you feel that a camera company should own all photos taken with their camera? Do you think that a manufacturer should have the right to disable your device for using software that was not developed by them in it? (Ex using a non-Sony DVD in a Sony DVD player). Many of the correct answers to these questions are contrary to common sense, and worst of all, we agree to these sorts of things daily.

        By the licensing agreement you accept when first using Nintendo's newest hand-held, the Nintendo 3DS, you are forfeiting the ownership of all photos taken by the system to Nintendo. You also give Nintendo the right to permanently disable your system if you use any game that is not approved by  Nintendo within it. The exact details of this License Agreement are outlined by QJ.net, one of the leading sources for electronic news. In summary, the system will constantly attempt to connect to the Internet, once successful it will upload all data to the Nintendo servers, this data is then owned by Nintendo (including photos, songs, and videos), should Nintendo see anything that they deem suspicious, they may void your warranty and disable all function on your system.

        Clearly, the degree of control forfeited to Nintendo is too high, a grass-roots campaign has erupted to do something about this defectivebydesign.org has recently held a fund-raiser to send over 200 bricks to Nintendo's headquarters in New York to raise awareness to the company that they are effectively turning the devices they sell into bricks. This sort of measure has worked in the past.
        As many of you have noticed, Apple's iTunes now sells songs for 1.29 instead of .99, however, these songs are entirely DRM free, thus you own the file and may do with it what you wish, instead of being forced to follow a very strict set of rules to avoid fines.

    I, personally, am a fan of both of these companies products. I have grown up on Nintendo games, and purchased a Nintendo 3DS System on the day of its release(March 27th 2011), I did the same for Nintendo's Wii (November 19th 2006) Console. I also have purchased multiple Apple devices, including an iPod Touch, iPod Nano, and iPod Classic. This article is not to scare you away from these companies, but merely to not be so blind to the abilities we surrender over to these enormous corporations by accepting their End User License Agreements.