Mike Godwin, Senior Technology Counsel of Public Knowledge, has published What Every Citizen Should Know about DRM, a.k.a. "Digital Rights Management," a useful and sobering primer on the technical and policy complexities of DRM.

I don't agree with all of his policy views -- in particular, I think definitions of fair use should be malleable (both ways) in the light of technological change -- but I share Mike's fear of government regulatory schemes, and I certainly amen his statement: "Most of us believe that artists and authors deserve to be compensated, and even that publishers deserve compensation for bringing them to us. At the same time, it is a natural human impulse to share the creative works we love. . . . The question before us, then, is how to harness both the technical ingenuity behind DRM and the human drive to share the works that we enjoy in a way that leverages the best from both."