The other key point in here is that “clients” decide the value, with a strong emphasis on the plural. If there are enough people who are happy to accept DRM to make the market viable then DRM will stay around. If DRM is mismanaged by turning off servers etc people will be less welcoming of it in the future. In the mean time though, you individually don’t get to decide the overall value – you just get to decide if you want to go without or not.

I wouldn’t agree that DRM is being brought in via collusion, the closest to that would have been the music industry except that in nearly all cases you could go out and get a non-DRM’d CD and now you can get non-DRM’d downloads as well. True, they tried DRM’d CDs for a bit but the market reaction generally showed it to not be profitable and by and large it’s stopped now. I’ve not heard of another industry that’s come close to collusion with DRM. If you stand back and look at the market, consumer’s aren’t getting DRM rammed down their throats, they’re quite happily or ignorantly choosing to accept it. It’s not up to the seller to do the consumer’s research and they’re not misleading consumers either, consumers just aren’t paying attention which is their own fault.

To be clear, I don’t like DRM and don’t support it, which is why I either choose alternate products that are DRM free or simply go without. There are a couple of exceptions where I considered the overall value worth enough to justify putting up with the DRM but I did it knowingly.

If for instance you decide you don’t like the restriction on most airline tickets that you cannot change the name on the ticket, you can pay a lot more and get a ticket that will allow this.

If you want to obtain a certain piece of software that comes with DRM, and you don’t want the DRM, you are not given the option to legally pay extra to obtain software without it. However if you decide you must have the software without DRM, the most likely source is to obtain an illegal cracked copy, for which you pay nothing.

I’d say that if we’re using analogies, this is closer to stowing away on a plane to avoid getting a restrictive ticket. However the risk/success ratio is much more in your favour with software piracy.

I guess the key point is that we are not being given a choice with DRM. The fear is that soon all digital products will have DRM, and we will be locked-in to it. From there, suppliers have leverage to further reduce the value prop, without being subject to market forces. Its being applied in a collusive manner, and the opt-out is something that has to really be fought for – competition alone does represent the consumer’s rights. I think that’s the key thing – this is a consumer rights and fair trading issue.