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Originally Posted by frankenbike
It's hard for me to believe that anyone who buys DRMed music doesn't use one of many converters available to get it to regular MP3s or burn them to CDs as backup so they can be re-ripped. A pain to be sure, but it's always been the smart thing to do.
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As Ed implied, you're way overestimating the average public, who'll click, buy a song, download it to their iPod, and enjoy. Moreover, even I don't do this for the few protected iTunes songs I have. I don't want to experience quality loss from the already-mediocre 128kbps encodings the tracks have. Given iTunes' position in the market, I think it's a pretty safe bet the tracks are okay for now.
(Note that I don't buy songs from iTunes unless they're not available elsewhere. I usually buy Amazon MP3 now, and before that, used to buy CDs.)
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DRM is evil and has been from day one. It's been discredited and is a marketing negative, and eventually all DRM services will cease operating.
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You're still too optimistic about the knowledge level of the end-user. Most iTunes users don't know, and don't care, about DRM. Part of the reason is because they only use iPods (so the Apple-device restriction isn't noticed), and perhaps because FairPlay is pretty lax and behind-the-scenes apart from that one limitation.
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What should happen, is that legit services should offer their users tools to convert all their DRMed music to non-DRM, including Microsoft and Apple, and the RIAA should bless such a movement. Rather than pinning their hopes on selling DRM buyers their music in non-DRMed form (the only reason such tools are not yet authorized).
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I doubt Microsoft or Apple have the right to offer such a tool in their contract. In Apple's case, it's moot; three of the four major record labels refuse to offer non-DRM to Apple in hopes of unseating them as the dominant music store. (And, if you'll notice, it hasn't worked yet, further underscoring what little the average public knows, or cares, about DRM's inherent evilness.)
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I'd put my money on Microsoft embracing such a move before the far more fascist, customer-control and developer-control obsessed Apple.
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Do note that Apple not only offered non-DRM AACs long before Microsoft did, but they also offered an upgrade feature to upgrade all DRMed tracks for which Apple has a non-DRM license ("iTunes Plus") for a reduced fee. It's built into iTunes and is a one-click process.
--janak