Tim Bray has written a good, compelling - and short - essay on the failures of DRM as used to protect copyrights:

Negative failures are when the technology fails to prevent unauthorized copying, and such failures are pervasive in all anti-circumvention technologies that have been deployed to date, as witness the wide availability of pretty well anything to someone who wishes to make an effort to find it.

Positive failures are when the technology prevents some use of protected material that in fact is legal and appropriate. While not as universal as negative failures, these have occurred with annoying regularity. For example, I currently experience considerable difficulty and irritation in transferring music (my music, legally acquired and paid for) from my Apple computer to my non-Apple cellphone.

Go read the whole thing; it's good stuff. Perhaps the most compelling argument is how the current rule system is encouraging massive disrespect for the law. Anyone who was driving during the 70's and 80's remembers how people felt about the 55 mph speed limit; copyright law has gone to the same bad place in people's minds.

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