DRM CHAIR from Thibault Brevet on Vimeo.

(DRM = Digital Rights Management)

Chairs and ebooks don’t have a lot in common. But just what if they did? From Escapist Magazine: (“Chair With DRM Collapses After Being Sat On Eight Times”):

“A team of creators working on a global project called The Deconstructionhave put together the world’s first “DRM Chair,” which falls apart after being used just eight times.

At a casual glance, the DRM Chair looks just like your average everyday wooden chair. However, a special built-in mechanism and sensor count how many people have sat in it, emitting a loud clicking noise to indicate the number of uses left after a person stands up. After eight people have used the chair, its joints start smoking, melting the special material that holds the chair together and causing it to collapse into a heap of parts after just a few seconds.”

It might not be a perfect analogy here, but it’s clever and I think gets the point across.

Also, MakeUseOf has a handy rundown, if you’re interested: What Is DRM & Why Does It Exist If It’s So Evil?