Victor Yodaiken makes some good points about Digital Rights Managment and the law of unintended consequences. There isn’t a “good” way to implement DRM where it won’t affect all systems in unpredictable ways, some of which can have deadly consequences.

Imagine, if you will, your doctor suddenly not being able to check your allergy status because someone used a DRM protected machine to upload information it thought was “protected” and shut itlself down.

That’s a pretty nightmarish scenario but could become a reality in the new more DRM friendly hardware environment. How many lives is a image of Mickey Mouse worth?