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If I buy a pBook and after I have read it, I decide a friend would like it and lend it. That is all legal and above board.
If I buy an eBook and after I have read it, I decide a friend would like it, the DRM would stop me from lending/giving it to said friend.
If I take said eBook and strip the DRM, I can give it to said friend to read.
But the problem comes in when said friend then turns around and gives it to someone else who may then tun around and post it on the net. This is what publishers do not want. Once you let an eBook go, you may not have control of it. If the friend is trustworthy and promises not to give it out, that's fine and no harm, no foul. But if you give the eBook to someone who lies and will let it go, that's the issue the publishers are using DRM for.
A pBook has to go from one person at a time. This pBook can only be read by one person at a time. And if it gets to a person who then has nobody to pass it onto, the lending stops. An eBook that gets out on the net can be read by many people at the same time. It can be downloaded by many people at the same time. Those people who downloaded it won't be paying for it. The question is though, would these people have bought it if they could not get it for free? Will they read it or are they just collectors?
I have seen torrents out there that have many eBooks in them and just because a given eBook is part of the collection doesn't mean it will be read by the downloader. So not all downloaded eBooks are a lost sale. But a lot are.
DRM is meant to try and prevent free sharing of eBooks. It's meant to restrict reading of eBooks to up to 6 devices/computer depending on the DRM.
The problem with DRM is that the people who actively send eBooks around the net know where to get them DRM free or how to strip the DRM. So DRM is not a hinder to them. DRM is a hinder to people who try to do what's right.
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