Kudos, Scott, for voicing these frustrations that I'm sure the vast majority of us have experienced in recent years.

I think you hit upon the main purpose of the DRM, which I feel is intended to be just enough of a pain in the @ss that the average joe can't (or doesn't bother with) getting around it. Of course, like you said, as consumers become more knowledgeable and grow increasingly frustrated, they'll get around the DRM. It's only really there to make sure that the bulk of users are paying for it, which I can almost understand*. I mean, like you said, most media that is DRM-protected can be easily (if not tediously) pirated with an analog-digital converter, so there's no way that the point is to completely eliminate unauthorized copies. It just seems like a short-term fix for a more complicated issue. They definitely haven't figured out a way to iron out the kinks and retain the status quo.

*I say this because $0.99 for a song is still a f-ing rip-off, bigtime. Especially in the sh!tty compressed formats that are offered on most songs on iTunes or Napster. Another reason is this: I put a movie that I have LEGALLY purchased into my DVD player/computer/Xbox/PS2/whatever, and I have to sit through 2-3 minutes of copyright warnings and insanely abstract CGI-intensive company logo screens? I don't think so. That's not America...that's not even Mexcio. Lastly, I've bought the Star Wars Trilogy so many times on so many different formats, they should just forward me a free copy of each new edition when it's released, signed by Lucas, no questions asked.


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