I too have wondered what to do about the whole DRM issue and I am convinced that the conflicting, restrictive efforts currently out there are going to hurt books and reading more in the long run than if publishers just got rid of DRM.
I have a couple of bookcases of hardcover and paperback books that I re-read every few years. Additionally, when guests come to stay or friends come over they can easily look through the books and borrow a book to read if they find one they like. This is not really possible with ebooks unfortunately.
I have bought ebooks from a number of sources in a number of formats (eg. mobi, ereader, fictionwise, etc) and it bothers me that many of these formats require specific reader software or devices and each uses a different DRM mechanism. How many years will I have access to these ebooks before the software or hardware is no longer available? It certainly won't be anywhere near the length of time I have had my paper books!
One thing that I have been doing for some time is purchasing my books from a publisher who does not use DRM. I am lucky in that my preferred genre is SciFi/Fantasy as one of my most read publishers, Baen Books, does not agree with DRM. I think that they have a truly enlightened and positive attitude towards DRM on ebooks and their Prime Palaver section which talks about their position is well worth reading (
http://www.baen.com/library/ and
http://www.baen.com/library/palaver_index.htm). Not only do they not put DRM on their ebooks, but they also provide a free library with complete ebooks for readers to download and read samples of an authors work. They say that the $'s show that this has actually helped sales, not hindered them. They also have no problem with someone giving a copy of an ebook to someone else to read as they believe that this also actually spreads the word and again increases sales, not, as most other publishers seem to believe, causes them to lose money!
I believe that people who are true readers will always be inclined to support the authors that they read. If I like reading David Weber books it is in my interest to buy his books, even if I could get them all for free, in order to support him and have him write more. Sure there are people who just want a free book here or there, but I don't think casual readers are ever going to be the ones who provide a real income to a publisher anyway. And besides, there is always the chance that if a casual reader get to read a particular authors book and become hooked they will start to buy the books they read. I also know from my experience as an avid reader that the ability to sample the full works of other authors I have not read before has lead to sales that Baen would not necessarily have got if it hadn't been so easy to explore new authors.
The sooner that publishers, movie studios and music studios move away from restrictive practices like DRM and geographical boundaries the sooner they will find that they will actually increase sales, not decrease them!