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Trying to get things back on topic (apologies for my part in derailing the thread), the Ars Technica article makes a few interesting points. The most obvious one, of course, that there are pirates and pirates. For a computer novice who barely knows what a torrent is, it will probably always be easier to buy than to pirate, because they have no idea even where to begin.
The ones that will be won over by the lack of DRM are the ones for whom the difference between a legal and an illegal download are the source and the software used to download the file, and nothing else. If it is as easy for a person to obtain a pirated copy of a book as it is to legally buy it from Sony for nearly $10, nothing but that person's ethics will prevent them from pirating the book. And even if they are strictly in favor of supporting the author, they may still download the pirated version, and then donate $10 to the author via the PayPal button on his/her website, rather than deal with the restrictions of DRM.
To quote one of my favorite game developers, the best way to combat piracy is not with restrictive and intrusive DRM, but by making sure that the paying customer gets such good value for their money that buying the game becomes more attractive than pirating it. Logically, this applies to books, music and movies, just as well as video games.
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