Self-Destructing DRM Chair by Les Sugus

Digital Rights Management is a technology that restricts the life span of digital downloads (music, software, e-books). It’s why the mp3 or eBook you bought will only be useful a certain number of times. Many people find that limitation, well, limiting. Swiss hackers and designers Les Sugus  are among them, and they used product design to make a political statement. The clever DRM chair self-destructs after being used eight times:

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 melted.

Les Sugus created the DRM Chair during The Deconstruction, a 48-hour-long hack-a-thon. To drive the point home, they ought to hook up with production (to make more DRM chairs), a group of street interventionists (to install the chairs for the RIAA), and a pack of “ratters” to record the results..

The DRM chair: a self-destructing chair