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There have been some interesting posts and I am going to make some brief comments on each of them so far.
@jswolf. The other thread certainly overlaps with this one, though this thread is more general and also refers to the Readium DRM. If the mods feel it is appropriate I have no objection to this thread being closed or merged with the other thread.
@cvkemp. I see no problem with removing drm for personal use or to enable use on other readers. But the main issue to me is trust. I am simply not confident that I will have continued access to my ebooks in the future whilst they remain encumbered with DRM.
@fjtorres. Thanks. I must have missed this on Monday. I will go back and have a read. I agree with your comments on commerial viabiliity and on Politicians. I might add the oft-quoted point that even very effective DRM will not stop piracy. Scanning of books is certainly not unknown. Nor is re-typing a whole book. OCR gets better and better. And these are not the only possibilities. Whilst a book can be read, it can be copied. The key to a viable industry is to keep prices reasonable and make purchasing easy and convenient. Otherwise DRM in fact encourages piracy.
@latepaul. You could be right, but I don't agree with you based on two things. If the only thing not released is the keys, which, as you say, are not code, then the question could have been answered yes without any caveats. And, as eschwartz pointed out, if all of the code is released the DRM is much more easily broken. Having the algorithm so easily available certainly does not do any harm to the hackers seeking to break it. On your other point, I think you are confusing the open source model of software development with open source in general, and the open source definition. Incidentally I don't claim that development of drm in open source products is excluded by the letter of the definition. I do, however, believe that it is against the spirit of the open source movement in general, given the aims of DRM. I don't profess to be an expert on the matter, and in fact would be quite interested in what those who are think about the issue.
@eshwartz. I think drm is against the spirit of the open source movement but not the letter. I agree with everything else in your post. Interestingly enough, abomination or not, if we must have drm the truly open source variety is something to be encouraged.
@tomsem. I don't see that the distinction between enterprise and consumer drm is relevant. Many of us do, however, have more sympathy for the need for DRM in an environment where ebooks are "lent" rather than "sold". Unfortunately, whilst a particular product can be developed to operate only in this environment, its potential operation beyond this environment cannot be excluded.
@Alpha o and @Patchicat. I agree so far as Sony is concerned. However, particularly with Corporations, leopards do change their spots from time to time, sometimes for the better and sometimes worst. For instance, much of the criticism of Amazon is about what it may do in the future under different management. However, there is no indication at all that Sony has changed for the better. Amazon did indeed make an egregious error with 1984. However, it did correct the matter promptly, realised its seriousness and there has been no repetition. Whilst I don't personally think it is necessary to avoid purchasing Kindles, I do think it is necessary to "future proof" ebooks purchased not only from Amazon but any Vendor that uses DRM.
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