this lecture by Cory Doctorow is by far the clearest, tightest explanation of the fundamental flaw in drm (digital rights management; often called "copy protection"). here is an excerpt (do go read the original, at least 1. That DRM systems don't work") too small to convey the argument effectively, but ah wel,l maybe it'll get you to read the whole thing: "DRM systems are broken in minutes, sometimes days. Rarely, months. It's not because the people who think them up are stupid. It's not because the people who break them are smart. It's not because there's a flaw in the algorithms. At the end of the day, all DRM systems share a common vulnerability: they provide their attackers with ciphertext, the cipher and the key. At this point, the secret isn't a secret anymore." oh yeah, and if you read/liked cryptomonicon, this is required reading.

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