Chair With DRM Collapses After Being Sat On Eight Times

[1337mokro]

Compare real life to piracy: YOU CAN'T DO THAT ITS DIGITAL MEDIA AND COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID!
Compare DRM to real life: Yeah that's right, this totally supports my ideas and shows how right I am!

It's a fun little absurdity but by no means anywhere near a valid comparison. Still, it's an interesting idea.

Of course it isn't a valid comparison. The chair was not loaded with a bear trap that would snap shut if you didn't input the right code whilst being constantly connected to the internet. That would have been an accurate representation of DRM. Where you had to identify yourself as the legitimate owner, I'm sorry, license holder before even being allowed to sit in it.

They also did not simulate the process of what happens after the chair melts. Where if you complain about it and demand a refund/replacement copy you will be threatened by the people that made the chair in having all your other chairs that they made melted as well.

Though how would you compare piracy to real life? Carry a cloning device with you that replicates anything you want for free? Because that is piracy, essentially making a copy of a product without paying for the use of that product. The analogy of going in a store and nicking something is not piracy, which is what I the analogy I think you were referring to.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Compare real life to piracy: YOU CAN'T DO THAT ITS DIGITAL MEDIA AND COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID!
Compare DRM to real life: Yeah that's right, this totally supports my ideas and shows how right I am!

It's a fun little absurdity but by no means anywhere near a valid comparison. Still, it's an interesting idea.

You've got your arguments backwards. It's the anti-piracy, pro-DRM guys who say that videogames are incomparable to every form of everything ever in history, and therefore are a unique situation with absolutely no good analogues. The closest thing anti-copyright people say is that there is a significant difference in the legal definition of theft and copyright infringement, which is true. Look up the statutes if you don't believe me.

Edit: Also, just in case you're wondering, there's a perfectly good analogy for piracy: other forms of copyright infringement. Stuff like making copies of your CDs (or a mixtape, if you're old enough) and handing them out to your friends. Or checking out a library book and making a photocopy of it for personal use. Or on a more widely accepted to be scummy level, doing either of those and then selling the results for a profit.

Edit Edit: Another example, the replicators from Star Trek. The fact that it's fictional doesn't change the fact that it's a well known example of the same thing, with the only difference being that the replicators make copies of physical objects, while piracy makes copies of data. And even that's changing for certain types of product, thanks to the rapidly dropping price of 3D printers. In Star Trek, the replicators led to a golden age where people worked for the betterment of mankind, instead of personal gain. In real life, the major copyright holders (including, humorously enough, those who own the rights to Star Trek) are doing everything they can to shut down what is quite possibly the most important technological innovation since the printing press.

 

[Antari]

I don't know if thats a description for DRM or just a depiction of the launch day for the average game these days.

 

[garjian]

I don't think this is a very good comparison.

The difference between a chair and software is that more than one software installation can exist at one time, where as after each person sat on that chair they stood up again.

If 9 people sat on any simple wooden chair like that at once, it would break.
If 9 monkeys sat on a branch as sturdy, it would break.
See? DRM is now a natural occurrence.

If they were implying that the previous installation needs to be removed AND you can only do that 8 times fair enough, but I don't think there's a lot of DRM that functions like that.
...Not to mention the fact that software can be copied and given to anyone, but I can't magically clone a chair I bought and hand them out both instantly and globally to anybody, on demand.

I don't support DRM or anything, but this is not a valid comparison at all.

 

[LordMonty]

Love the chair. Hate the DRM.

 

[lacktheknack]

Only fools and suckers "begrudgingly accept" DRM. The correct course of action is to reject it outright.

That limits you to gog.com and some humble bundles.

Be realistic.

 

[Dryk]

Primarily because everyone brings up "theft" when talking about piracy which is their major flaw, since theft and copyright infringement are 2 different things and you cant accurately have a physical representation of copyright infringement.

I think a laser scanner and 3d printer come fairly close

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

Now pray to God nobody tells Ikea. Just imagine:

"...in a recent press announcement from Ikea, the Swedish firm had confirmed that it is partnering with EA to create a new line of computer-connected desk and chairs. The new line of product is not only 200% cheaper than current product lines, but also automatically collapses if you don't keep the furniture online and purchase a copy of FIFA and/or Simcity every year. It will also collapse every 3 year anyway if you don't renew the license..."

Good, I wasn't the only one thinking that.

 

[CorvusFerreum]

This DRM seems incomplete. No always online requirement. No loss of other product purchased from this comany when trying to get around the chairs DRM. Nothing to keep me from modding the chair. No need to register the chair to a specific user. No means to keep me from reselling the chair. Try harder next time.
Also: Use C4 next time.

I didnt know limited installed was a thing

thats essentially rendering a product you PAID for useless after a certain amount of time

They also made it count as an install if you switch certain parts of your hardware (Mainboard, CPU and I think some cases even GPU. Not sure about that one though) or reinstalled your OS. Because making your product inferiour is the best way to prevent piracy HOI DOI DOI!

*starts downloading "chair.torrent"*

It's a good thing DRM does not happen with physical things.

Please don't ban me.

It does exist, it's called "designed physical obsolescence" and deals with using materials and building things a certain way, so they become useless after a certain number of times (or uses).
A lot of companies are doing that.

Cool, I wasn't the only one reminded of this.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

*starts downloading "chair.torrent"*

It's a good thing DRM does not happen with physical things.

Please don't ban me.

It does exist, it's called "designed physical obsolescence" and deals with using materials and building things a certain way, so they become useless after a certain number of times (or uses).
A lot of companies are doing that.

I've always heard it called "planned obsolescence," and it's definitely a thing. Comes in two flavors: the one you mentioned why do you think appliances from the 70's still work, but that washing machine you bought five years ago already needs to be replaced or repaired? It's not like we've gotten worse at engineering in the meantime, and the variety where they release a new product with the plans for a successor that makes it completely obsolete already well in motion. Electronics (including game consoles) are notorious for this.

The latter case is usually excusable, since those successors tend to be a long time coming[footnote]Can you believe that people were saying they'd hold off on disc based media until the HD version came out... back in 1996, when the launch of DVD was right around the corner, and BluRay almost a decade off? More modern example, Bluray 3D and its incompatibilities with certain aspects of older HD tech, especially early versions of the HDMI standard[/footnote], long enough that it's worth it for both the consumer and the producer to get the earlier, crappier version out there for a few years.

The former case is just obnoxious, although there's nothing you can really do about it short of voting with your wallet, buying from companies that build their stuff to last longer than the competition's products.

 

[Kl4pp5tuhl]

I didnt know limited installed was a thing

thats essentially rendering a product you PAID for useless after a certain amount of time

...just like most smartphones/PCs/TVs/consoles.

Get it? We are all sold temporary Jenga puzzles.

 

[mitchell271]

*looks at chair*
...What I'm trying to say is that the two things aren't really comparable.

That's part of the joke. The idea is to show how ridiculous DRM can be by showing what it would be like with other products.

 

[mitchell271]

It's not as much of a problem on the PC as it sounds. It usually gets patched out of the game one way or another.
It seems that right now, the mostly used DRM in recent years is Steam and other similar services, which means that you have the game as long as the service is available and you have an access to your account. Hardly ideal, but I the retail prices in my country are too high, and I need an online connection to patch games bought on discs anyway.

It's still an issue with Steam, it's just that the serivce works well and people are more than happy to use it. The reason people hate DRM is that it's often intrusive (e.g. current SimCity debacle, Diablo III error 37, anything by Ubisoft) and affects how and where you can play the game. The always-on DRM is an example of the worst kinds of DRM because we don't always have internet. What if I love the game and I bring my laptop with my to the airport or on a plane? The WiFi in the former is too slow and there's not connection of any kind in the latter. DRM can be done properly, most large publishers don't use it that way.

 

[Entitled]

Primarily because everyone brings up "theft" when talking about piracy which is their major flaw, since theft and copyright infringement are 2 different things and you cant accurately have a physical representation of copyright infringement.

I think a laser scanner and 3d printer come fairly close

Not really, since even there, the thing that gets infringed is actually the data about the object's properties.

3D printing a plastic object, is not any more "physical" than burning a DVD. The problem is not with the new object that you create, that isn't taken away from anyone, but with the data that you aren't allowed to recreate according to the law.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Hopefully this will stop rampant chair piracy and illegal downloading of furniture.

 

[Akytalusia]

since drm is per install instead of per use, i'd think a more apt comparison would have been if the chair could only be moved 8 times before breaking, and sat on infinitely as long as it remained in place.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

HAHA a neat little comparison. But I feel satirising DRM is not reaching the potential of this technology. With this chair, we at long last have an advantage of our old nemesis, the dreaded "move your feet, lose your seat law." With this chair and a proper user authenticator to identify the correct chair owner, you could at last get up to grab yourself a drink at a large get together without fear of some opportunistic bastard nicking your seat.

 

[verindae]

That's kinda cute, but the chair really needs some additions:

- constant connection to the chair manufacturer
- EULA, which disallows you to lend the chair to anyone else
- a sensor which causes the chair to collapse immediately when someone else sits on it
- a system which causes ALL the chairs in your home to collapse if one of your chair breaks and you want a refund from the chair manufacturer

a whole bunch of different people using that 1 chair. Translate that into a whole bunch of different people using that 1 game and you have a game getting banned because it's pirated. I do wish people would think more...

So basically, if more than one person uses a chair, it's chair piracy? Odd, I never really thought of that. Oh well.

You kind of missed my point there, whether deliberately or not only you can say. That being said you do make a valid point that you can't compare a chair to a game. You don't buy a license for a chair after all so the comparison more closely resembles open source or license free software I guess.

I'm sure you're aware of the limited use licensing style of DRM the video is aimed at (and don't get me wrong I think that's bullshit as much as anyone else), I just think it would've made a better point if many different people weren't sitting on it. Many different people using a game licensed for 1 person is piracy and I doubt that's the message they were trying to convey.