This Chair Shows The Abusive, Anti-Consumer Side Of DRM

DRM is a fact of life these days. Every company wants to protect their digital content with varying degrees of security from product codes to always online Internet connections. The sad part is that m...
This Chair Shows The Abusive, Anti-Consumer Side Of DRM
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  • DRM is a fact of life these days. Every company wants to protect their digital content with varying degrees of security from product codes to always online Internet connections. The sad part is that most DRM solutions fail to stop pirates, while hurting legitimate consumers. Even sadder, most consumers never question these practices.

    So, what would happen if companies started applying DRM to physical objects? The results are a little more than ridiculous if the DRM Chair is any indication:

    The DRM Chair has only a limited number of use before it self-destructs. The number of use was set to 8, so everyone could sit down and enjoy a single time the chair.

    A small sensor detects when someone sits and decrements a counter. Every time someone sits up, the chair knocks a number of time to signal how many uses are left. When reaching zero, the self-destruct system is turned on and the structural joints of the chair are broken.

    DRM CHAIR from thibault brevet on Vimeo.

    Consumers would never buy a chair that had only eight users. Why do we then keep buying digital software, music and movies that have the same anti-consumer restrictions?

    [h/t: Reddit]

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