Up to now I've tried to stick to my guns about DRM. If something had DRM, I'd either return it or not buy it in the first place. I've not been perfect - I've bought things like DVD's and bluerays which are at least region locked. I never bought anything from itunes when they had drm, but I've purchased a metric crapload since.
I'd like to get some non-dead-tree magazine subscriptions (Analog and Asimov), but they are all drm'ed when you buy from amazon, sony, barnes and noble. At this point my only option is to buy higher priced individual issues from fictionwise which is owned by b&n - which could mean that it gets killed off in favour their own competing store. I even emailed the publisher and they told me they "do not have any plans for DRM free subscriptions in the future". *sigh*
Why do I hate drm so much? To me it removes who owns the purchased item. At any time the company can decide not to support the device or (if it calls home) servers that the drm uses. You're locked into the devices which the company decides you can use.
Don't get me wrong, I've got no problem paying for content or using docs that are clearly linked to me like they generate at the pragmatic bookshelf. I know when I download a pdf from them, I can view it on my computer, my iphone, or any device I get in the future.
I know that I can strip off the drm. I could just ignore the law. That's not the point. I don't like being a "good customer" and being treated like a criminal. I'll do the only thing that I can do - vote with my wallet and go somewhere else while letting them know why I won't be a customer of theirs.
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