Anti-DRM T-Shirt Design Contest: The Winners are…

Written by Ernesto on July 10, 2007 

DRM is doomed to fail. Unfortunately, the majority of the movie companies and record labels still think it’s the best way to “protect” their media. By wearing these shirts you can show them it’s not and that it only hinders honest customers.

The contest turned out to be a great success. Nearly 50 designs were submitted and over 10,000 people picked their favorite during the voting round last month.

We’re happy to (finally) announce the winning designs. If you’d like to wear one of these high quality shirts, just click on your favorite design.


1.

The winning design titled “The Content of This T-Shirt Could Not Be Displayed” is from Mark Lindhout. In little over a week this design received 1608 votes. Congratulations with your $250 prize Mark!

anti drm tee shirt contest design

With 888 votes Adam Cooke ended in second place with his “DRM, It Just Doesn’t Work” design. Congratulations with your $100 prize Adam! This shirt is available in black and white.

2.

anti drm tee shirt contest design

The third place is again for Mark Lindhout, this time for “DRM, No one Admitted”. This one received 838 votes. You’re a lucky guy Mark, another $50 is coming your way.

3.

anti drm tee shirt contest design


The T-Shirts can be ordered at Beautiful Crime. They are sold for 12 UK pounds ($24) and will be shipped worldwide. The designs are screenprinted on 100% copyright free cotton.

We don’t make any money from this so don’t order a tee just to support us. Setting up the screens is expensive and premium quality shirts are not cheap either, that’s why the price is higher than we initially aimed for ($15). If you want to print your own shirt you can contact us for the source files for the shirts.

We hope you’ll all buy a shirt to show that DRM is not the way to go. If you have further questions you can send me an email.

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45 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)

1 Jul 11, 2007 at 01:51 by Jasper van Weerd

T-Shirt ordered.

2 Jul 11, 2007 at 04:03 by smartass

How do we pay? Paypal, check…..

3 Jul 11, 2007 at 04:09 by Cards

Since you’re not selling these for profit, can you share the source images for the designs? I screen print myself and would like to make my own (for myself, not to sell.)

4 Jul 11, 2007 at 04:19 by Thief

Recreated the image and mass producing them now. Hope you don’t mind me taking credit and making some money while I am at it. Thanks.

5 Jul 11, 2007 at 04:20 by Nelson

If you want to teach the public about DRM the 1st place candidate will do nothing. Too wordy, arcane, and non-visual. On the other hand, the 2nd place candidate concisely explains that DRM and Music don’t go together. 3rd place, though more cryptic than 2nd place, is still much better than the 1st place pick.

We can all agree though, DRM is a blight on consumers and publishers alike. It has not worked since my first exposure to it in 1980 on an OSI C4P chess playing program.

6 Jul 11, 2007 at 04:59 by Adam

I just wanted to throw in a big thanks to Ernesto. He did an excellent job running the contest from start to finish. We also had some nice chats after the contest.. cool guy all around.

And thanks to all you guys who voted for and commented on my design (2nd Place). :)

7 Jul 11, 2007 at 05:24 by Jordan Meeter

Sorry, $24 is too much for a single shirt. Try making them $15 or so and maybe then I’ll buy.

8 Jul 11, 2007 at 05:39 by Gingerwhitebread

Why would I waste my time making a T-Shirt about DRM for a lousy $50 and then you’re going to sell my design? I don’t think so. I earned every penny selling anything with my design makes. It belongs to my individual mind. How dare you manipulate me into thinking I owe you or anyone else charity. “Give” is a dirty word spoken by beggars and thieves.

9 Jul 11, 2007 at 05:50 by MasterNetHead

@ Gingerwhitebread
Whoa! Nobody asked you to *give* anything to anybody, did they? I’m sure the people’s designs that made it knew that they would be sold for zero profit. Besides, its for a cause, as far as I’m concerned.

The second place shirt is the best, for sure. It’s visually striking. Square pegs don’t fit in round holes. Very nice.

10 Jul 11, 2007 at 05:52 by KW

Dude, gingerwhitebread, lay off the misapplied Ayn Rand for a bit; no one forced you to submit anything from your precious individual mind.

11 Jul 11, 2007 at 05:53 by VAsu

COOL……..:)))))

12 Jul 11, 2007 at 06:30 by Matt

@ MasterNetHead & KW

Holy not getting a completely obvious joke, Batman.

13 Jul 11, 2007 at 07:53 by Evil Jim

So if you’re not making a profit on these T-shirts, who gets to keep my $24?

14 Jul 11, 2007 at 08:09 by Mark J.

In the spirit of the subject itself, I really think, publishing the source file (eps, pdf, anything vector-y) would be great. I love the third design but neither the cut nor the color of the T.

Please share the designs.

15 Jul 11, 2007 at 08:42 by scotty

These are fun. I hope you’ll post the PDFs since your motives are not for profit.

However, production costs must be insanely high in the UK or you are planning really short runs.

You should get paid above cost for doing this since there is a lot of work involved in jobbing this out and in order fulfillment, but there is just no way that 1 color screen printed shirt should have a wholesale cost $24, even with a white under print for dark fabric–at least not in the US. I can’t speak for the UK.

That being said, it doesn’t mean I might not spring for one, but the cost issue is an odd one unless you only hope to sell a very short run of each and don’t think you can spread out the screen setup charges. Even so two of them are 1 color (well, “two” with the under print but you can use the same screen.)

16 Jul 11, 2007 at 09:19 by xharekx33

i’ve done plenty of shirts for my band, using heavyweight cotton shirts (fruit fo the loom, gyldan, hanes…), with up to 3 colors printed, and *very* limited runs (50 to 100 shirts) and we got to sell them for 10 euros and we still make some profit…

if you need to sell them for $24 to cover the production costs, the guy who’s printing the shirts is totally ripping you off

17 Jul 11, 2007 at 11:38 by Ernesto

[quote comment="131306"]These are fun. I hope you’ll post the PDFs since your motives are not for profit.

However, production costs must be insanely high in the UK or you are planning really short runs.
[/quote]

Feel free to contact me for the source files, so you can make your own print.

We don’t expect to sell hundreds of shirts so the printing has to be more or less on-demand. Setting up the screens is relatively expensive.

18 Jul 11, 2007 at 14:17 by Tibloto

$24+shipping is a tad high. If you want to keep things domestic (US) and only pay $15, here’s an anti-DRM t-shirt that wasn’t included in the contest:

http://www.nudatees.com/shop/25/i_wipe_my_ass

19 Jul 11, 2007 at 15:11 by Willy

A few years back, 12 UK pounds would have only been $18. Much closer to the $15 target. Too bad the $ is going to hell. Anyone producing these non-profit on these shores?

20 Jul 11, 2007 at 15:57 by Weeber

Is a shame, this was the better:
http://torrentfreak.com/images/anti-drm34.jpg

21 Jul 12, 2007 at 02:29 by Michael

Weeber. In case you didn’t know, that’s not better than anything. It’s just plain vulgar, and in very poor taste.
The reason that the winning design came top is because of its subtlety and simplicity, expressed through sublime parody, as opposed to gross sexual allusions.

22 Jul 13, 2007 at 19:24 by Willy

@Michael - Nope. You’re wrong. His suggestion *is* better than the winner. But not better than 2nd and 3rd place.

23 Jul 17, 2007 at 12:31 by Andrew

It totally depends what you want. I wouldn’t be seen dead wearing the second place one, that’s a kind of design that people going to protest DRM would wear. The third place t-shirt is alright, but I do think the one that won is deserved. Yeah, ok, it doesn’t talk about DRM or music specifically, but it’s original and clever (in comparison at least).

24 Jul 17, 2007 at 12:33 by Andrew

Oh, and as for the price, I think it’s reasonable, especially if the people printing the t-shirts are the ones paying the winners the prize money, otherwise, maybe it’s not all that great…

25 Jul 20, 2007 at 01:35 by adyo

3rd shirt shoulda taken first. 1st second and 2nd one… not really sure why it won anything.

26 Jul 22, 2007 at 21:50 by Jon

Hmmn, how do you buy one?

The site linked just says ‘Sold’, did they all really sell out in 12 days?

27 Sep 05, 2007 at 14:57 by Cristobal

I like it and the background and colors make it easy to read%

28 Sep 07, 2007 at 01:09 by Gustav

Thanks for your project. I like this site. KEEP IT UP..i

29 Sep 10, 2007 at 14:18 by Isaac

Very good web site, great work and thank you for your service.%

30 Nov 30, 2007 at 11:11 by emily

yah..its really nice
Rhinestone t-shirts ith different varieties are good and gives a cool and calm looking
custom t shirts
Regards,
emily.

31 Mar 13, 2008 at 11:44 by Bob

Nice article…People will really appreciate it..Keep it up..
http://www.funnytshirtz.com

32 Mar 19, 2008 at 12:05 by Nikolet

Nice site!

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