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I think publishers are overly afraid of DRM, and it hurts authors. First of all, Cory Doctorow has a quote which is oft-repeated, that obscurity is a bigger threat to authors than piracy. I agree with this. Secondly, 'piracy' is an unavoidable part of every business. The vast majority of customers are honest people who will pay a fair price for what they want. But there will always be 'pirates' and there are in every business. I know my university meal plan when I was in first year university budgeted a certain amount into the cost because people would steal forks and spoons and such. And I bet the corner store budgets a certain amount of loss into their budget to teenagers shoplifting candy bars. That's business. The threat in publishers heads is really vastly, vastly inflated to what it is.
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