> Try this question on a hacker site, we are legitimate :-)

Legitimate, indeed.
Utterly brain dead and follow the leader just because the leader 
demands to be followed, no.

Such things involve legality, morality and ethics.
It may be that the DRM originator has legality on his side in this 
instance, but that is not necessarily the case.
A person selling an IP product can "protect" it in any way they see 
fit. They may, for instance, choose to protect it by only ever 
providing blank CDs or empty files and never letting the actual IP out 
of their control at any time. This is called theft. What Vitaliy is 
experiencing is somewhere on the continuum between unfettered access 
and theft. And it's closer to theft than unfettered access. Clearly 
nobody would tolerate buying blank media in order that the seller can 
maximally protect their rights. some may accept restrictions as severe 
as Vitaliy is experiencing, but many will not.

It is not necessarily true that the legitimate buyer of the IP rights 
is legally compelled to observe the letter of what the vendor desires. 
And morally and ethically it may well be that the buyer is justified 
in trying to do things that the seller did not intend. Which seems 
fairly clearly to be the case in this instance.


        Russell


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