“Content owners view intellectual property in terms of its value, which they wish to maximize and monetize in any way possible.”

—which implies that the only measure of this ‘value’ lies in money. I can see that a guy might go to work at a job he hates, solely for money. But most artists and writers (who are not the ‘content owners’ but the ‘content creators’ or ‘artists’) may talk a good game about money (and many of those who write per instruction under salaried employment may mean it), but they have other measures of ‘value’ besides money. Most writers do not make a living from their writing. Most people who write do so from the amateur status you claim for your music.

These people would, as Tim O’Reilly noted, rather be read than paid. They wouldn’t turn down money, naturally. But self-expression and attention are powerful values for them, and DRM, by choking off who and how many get to read their works, really does destroy a huge amount of these measures of value.

There is some really great debate over on the TeleRead Blog concerning DRM, copyright, and piracy. As the TeleRead blog has grown, David has added new columnists (disclaimer: including Wiley publisher Joe Wikert) which has really added to the conversa…