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Originally Posted by boxcorner
What I don't understand is why publishers like Penguin bother using DRM at all....
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Door locks are notoriously ineffective. With a tiny bit of training, anyone could breeze through your back door and rob you blind.
And yet, we still use door locks. Why? Because they present a basic line of deterrence, and keep most people honest/restricted.
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Originally Posted by boxcorner
I get the impression that, apart from a few law-abiding people like the OP, many, if not most, people strip the DRM from books that they buy.
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I suspect that's a false impression. If that really was the case, no one would gripe about vendor lock-ins, since they'd be irrelevant once you strip the DRM.
Ebooks are still kind of a techie thing. And while it doesn't require much technical expertise to hit the Pirate Bay, stripping DRM is probably too much bother for the average consumer.
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Originally Posted by boxcorner
Isn't DRM doomed to eventually become obsolete?
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Nope.
The only media where DRM has gotten blown away is music -- in no small part because the music business distributed DRM-free digital versions for a few decades, thus making it a snap to rip and distribute DRM-less versions.
However, DRM is still prevalent in movies, video games and other media, no matter how often it's cracked. You're also seeing DRM go online, e.g. Adobe's activation systems for its software.
So it is possible that they'll give up on DRM, but I wouldn't count on it.