The first thing DRM haters should get through their heads is this: DRM is not Microsoft's idea. The next realization you should be having is that, if you're directing all your anti-DRM ire at MS ... you're playing right into the hands of the
real DRM mavens, by shooting at the wrong target!
Are you mad at Panasonic, Yamaha, Samsung or other companies who make DVD players because of the
region coding their players enforce as an elementary form of DRM? You shouldn't be: region coding was forced on the Panasonics and Yamahas of the world by the Hollywood studios who want to protect their revenue stream.
...still with me? Now consider that Vista's DRM 'features' are just the next wave of DRM technologies conceived by the movie and music industries - again to protect
their revenue stream, not Microsofts. As
this excellent Kuro5hin article explains, MS's primary interest here is to
be able to to play the next wave of DRM-encoded content. Otherwise Microsoft gets locked out as a player of content.
Your real enemy here isn't Microsoft, who are just the first to implement the DRM technologies required by the content distributors. No, your real enemy is the content producers who are mandating DRM: the RIAA/MPAA consortium made up of companies like Sony, 20th Century Fox, Polygram, RCA, Paramount, Warner Brothers, and so on. These are the people who push DRM schemes in the first place, and dictate to the Panasonics/Yamahas/Microsofts of the world that they
better damn well enforce that DRM.
OK. That said, my own opinion about DRM is mixed. Personally, I'll stop being bothered as soon as some of the current problems are worked out. I can see a world where DRM means I still
own my music/movies/whatever even if I lose the CD/DVD. Even if CD/DVD tech goes out of style and some new thing comes into style; my DRM certificate should allow me to easily download a new copy of the content I bought 15 years ago and play it in my whizbang new-tech device. That's the
promise of DRM. If it doesn't fulfill that promise, I don't want it.