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Here's my take.

When I bought albums years ago, they finally got scratched. When I replaced them, say with cassette tapes, everybody got paid again for the same work. The production of the tape without all the artist and agent fees is very low, but I had to pay full price for a replacement. Then CD's came out. I had to pay full price again, even though the production cost of the CD was even less than the previous two media.

At least now with CD's, I can rip the songs to mp3 files that I can play from my hard disk, mp3 player, phone, or whatever. Make them copy-proof, and I have to pay full price for every different media I want to use, even though I've now I've already paid the artist, his agent, the label... everybody 3 times for the same songs.

Same with movies. I bought VHS tapes. Now when I try to copy them over to DVD, what happens? I find out they have copy protection. Audio is fine, but the picture is screwed up. How many times to I need to pay Hollywood for the same show?

sheez.

I downloaded songs from P2P networks before all the lawsuits began, but generally I was trying to find stuff that I had owned in the past, but no longer had for one reason or another - usually media failue. I don't mind people getting paid for their work...I sure like to get paid for mine... but if I wire up a light for somebody, I don't expect to get paid again everytime he changes the light bulb!

I would consider DRM suitable for those situations--and only those situations--in which the user has paid to use the media content for a finite period of time which is shorter than the shortest reasonable expected lifetime of its provider.

If I subscribe to a monthly music service and download something, I've paid for the right to use that music for the duration of my paid subscription. If something happens to it, I can go back to the supplier and re-download it. The supplier might go bankrupt during the month and leave me unable to re-download music to which I should be entitled, but that's not very likely to happen.

If I buy a normal CD or DVD, however, I'm buying the transferable right to use that media content forever. It is thus very likely that my right to use the content will outlive the provider thereof; therefore, my ability to use the content should not be made contingent upon the provider's continued existence.