Nonfree (proprietary) software is very often malware (designed to mistreat the user). Nonfree software is controlled by its developers, which puts them in a position of power over the users; that is the basic injustice. The developers often exercise that power to the detriment of the users they ought to serve.
Here are examples of proprietary programs and systems that implement digital restrictions management (DRM): functionalities designed intentionally to restrict what users can do. These functionalities are also called digital handcuffs.
DRM is reinforced by censorship laws that ban software (and hardware) that can break the handcuffs. Instead of these laws, DRM itself ought to be illegal. Please support our campaign to abolish DRM.
The DMCA and the EU Copyright Directive make it illegal to study how iOS cr...apps spy on users, because this would require circumventing the iOS DRM.
Google now allows Android apps to detect whether a device has been rooted, and refuse to install if so. The Netflix app uses this ability to enforce DRM by refusing to install on rooted Android devices.
Update: Google intentionally changed Android so that apps can detect rooted devices and refuse to run on them. The Netflix app is proprietary malware, and one shouldn't use it. However, that does not make what Google has done any less wrong.
Windows DRM files can be used to identify people browsing through Tor. The vulnerability exists only if you use Windows.
Chrome implements DRM. So does Chromium, through nonfree software that is effectively part of it.
HP's firmware downgrade imposed DRM on some printers, which now refuse to function with third-party ink cartridges.
Oculus Rift games now have DRM meant to prevent running them on other systems.
The “Cube” 3D printer was designed with DRM: it won't accept third-party printing materials. It is the Keurig of printers. Now it is being discontinued, which means that eventually authorized materials won't be available and the printers may become unusable.
With a printer that gets the Respects Your Freedom, this problem would not even be a remote possibility.
How pitiful that the author of that article says that there was “nothing wrong” with designing the device to restrict users in the first place. This is like putting a “cheat me and mistreat me” sign on your chest. We should know better: we should condemn all companies that take advantage of people like him. Indeed, it is the acceptance of their unjust practice that teaches people to be doormats.
Phillips “smart” lightbulbs have been designed not to interact with other companies' smart lightbulbs.
If a product is “smart”, and you didn't build it, it is cleverly serving its manufacturer against you.
The Amazon Kindle has DRM. That article is flawed in that it fails to treat DRM as an ethical question; it takes for granted that whatever Amazon might do to its users is legitimate. It refers to DRM as digital “rights” management, which is the spin term used to promote DRM. Nonetheless it serves as a reference for the facts.
We refer to that product as the Amazon Swindle because of this and other malicious functionalities.
DRM in Windows, introduced to cater to Bluray disks. (The article talks about how the same malware would later be introduced in MacOS. That had not been done at the time, but it was done subsequently.)
DRM in MacOS. This article focuses on the fact that a new model of Macbook introduced a requirement for monitors to have malicious hardware, but DRM software in MacOS is involved in activating the hardware. The software for accessing iTunes is also responsible.
A further consequence of this malware is that users may have trouble playing videos on auxiliary large screens. (The article, from a publication whose name suggests it idolizes Apple, treats these restrictions as irreproachable.)
Adobe made “Digital Editions,” the e-reader used by most US libraries, spy on the user for the sake of DRM.
DVDs and Bluray disks have DRM.
That page uses spin terms that favor DRM, including digital “rights” management and “protect”, and it claims that “artists” (rather than companies) are primarily responsible for putting digital restrictions management into these disks. Nonetheless, it is a reference for the facts.
Every Bluray disk (with few, rare exceptions) has DRM—so don't use Bluray disks!