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Personally I don't think DRM is bad - but it needs to be tempered with an associated economic incentive. Right now I can get a book from the library, as Jake says, or I can buy a second-hand book from Amazon marketplace, read it, and resell it - which comes out at an end cost of roughly 20% of the second hand price plus $3 shipping - frequently about $5-$6.
Furthermore, the marginal cost of an e-book is close to zero.
A DRMed book should be based on these kind of numbers. I can't resell it to recoup my costs, so the costs should factor that in. I would be quite happy to buy DRMed books that are no good to anyone else if they were under $5. Over $10 and I'm going to balk unless it is something I really want.
My point being, DRM - if used properly - can work to both the producer and the consumers benefit. Unfortunately in practice it mostly seems to support price gouging. In the long run though, I have hope - not hope that DRM will go away (it won't - it'll get tighter, tied to your DNA or something) but hope that the producers will realize that if they cut prices by 75% they would more than quadruple sales. I.e. hope that producers finally start to apply basic supply/demand curve economic principles to maximize their profits instead of greed based on stupidity.
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