For consumers, the truth of all this is obscured behind some friendly-sounding doublespeak.¹⁵ I hate to pick on Microsoft again (believe it or not) but here's some of its reasons (circa Windows Media 10) why consumers should actually benefit from DRM:

"Digital distribution offers consumers a convenient way to access their favorite content at any time, and with content protected with Windows Media DRM 10 they'll have even greater flexibility and choice. Today consumers can choose from a variety of content service providers, a multitude of devices, and a variety of 'purchase and download' payment options and subscription models. Windows Media DRM 10 ensures that consumers will be able to enjoy even greater flexibility and choice by allowing them to acquire and/or transfer their subscription content to the devices of their choosing."

This flexibility and choice, of course, means you've got the ability to be flexible and choose... which device or software you listen to your content through... as long as the content industry approves. If your software, hardware, OS, drivers, players, etc. don't meet the specs, you can forget about being able to use that content.

At what stage will higher costs come back to sting the PC, consumer electronics, and media industries? It's anyone's guess. Perhaps never -- which begs the question, how will the successes enjoyed by the media industry in 2007 embolden it to push for even greater controls?

With an ostensibly more progressive legislative agenda now in vogue here in the U.S.,¹⁶ there's some momentum afoot to defang portions of the DMCA, to continue to oppose HD broadcast flags and similar technologies. How this all plays out, however, remains anyone's guess. But with so much already invested in content-controlling software and hardware product development, it will doubtless be some time before the pendulum swings back to a market that prioritizes consumer rights and Fair Use.

The trend toward the DRMization¹⁷ is already on pace to cause real, and measurable, impact to the PC ecosystem, and especially its users and system builders. The marriage of PC and DRM is detrimental to the public good, devalues a worthwhile product, distracts from the goal of real innovation, and (at its worst) defrauds a public that believes paying for the latest and greatest products will deliver a better experience.