If furniture had DRM
You might expect to see something like this:
I am a carpenter. I make chairs. My chairs are very comfortable and pleasant to look at, and they cost a pretty penny.
I have found a way to treat the wood so that they degrade and are unusable after six months of use. This is because I would like you to buy more chairs from me. What good is a paying customer if he doesn’t keep paying you?
There is nothing inherent in the money-for-chair transaction that says you should be able to sit on that chair for as long as you want. If I have to come in the middle of the night and confiscate it from you after six months, I will.
That is my right as a carpenter. As a consumer, you have no rights. So buy my chairs every six months and stop whining.
As Cory Doctorow notes (same link, top of post):
It’s hilarious that the same yahoos who argue for perpetual copyright (implying that copyrighted works have value forever) also argue for time-limited ownership (implying that people who buy copyrighted works should be content to enjoy them for a few weeks or years until the DRM stops working).
They need to start buying chairs. Lots and lots of chairs.
McGehee »
1 August 2009 · 11:49 am
Comfy chairs.