I just found (thanks Slashdot) an article on Groklaw titled “Some Safety and Reliability Questions About DRM” by Victor Yodaiken. Mr Yodaiken opens his article with:
Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies are supposed to protect digitized “content”, like movies and musical performances from being illicitly copied or used. DRM technology is sometimes described as security technology when it is really licensing technology — something very different. In fact, DRM may decrease security and reliability.
and then presents several scenarios of how the insidious nature of rights-management systems can affect the systems we rely on to keep us safe. Give it a read. If it makes you queasy like it made me, give your representatives a call and let them know!