PR Opinions points out that the digital protection schemes that the RIAA and the MPAA are annoying us with are not limited to those fields - publishers of e-books are in on the act as well:

I finally bought one of these damned books because I needed it fairly quickly.  I will never do it again. It's a great example of how traditional industries (publishers, music etc.) are completely missing the point.  Their only reaction to the digital era is to sell products that are more inaccessible than their analog counterparts. The book in question could only be read using the very latest (and most bloated) version of Adobe Reader - which by the way includes loads of really useful nagware features.  The book's copyright protection allows you to print 12 pages in any given week.... You can't transfer it onto you PDA... Instead you're forced to read it on your laptop and when the battery dies... Well so does your reading. 

Call me old fashioned but I personally prefer physical books and this experience has just re-affirmed my preferences. Publishers can clearly save money in distribution and production by selling electronic versions but instead they worry about pirates. They are flattering themselves.

Have we learned nothing from the bad old days of attempted copy protection of floppy disks? This sort of thing irritates paying customers, and puts no real hurdles in the way of the pirates who want to do harm.