This is a big issue for us all.

Rich Kulawiec wrote an excellent position piece on the NANOG mailing list which summarises the problem thus:

Sometimes the world changes, and sometimes when it does, it's time to
discard outdated philosophy that no longer applies to current reality --
because stubborn attempts to hang onto it at all costs, especially by
warping it into something completely unrecognizable from the original
framework, really DO cost, often dearly.
[...]
Schneier famously said "Trying to make bits uncopyable is like trying
to make water not wet". What we are witnessing is precisely an
attempt to do that, via a combination of anti-security technology
(e.g., DRM) and purchased legislation, orchestrated by failing,
legacy companies run by insatiably greedy people. These people simply
don't care how much damage they do, how many lives they destroy,
how much they hold back civilization, how much they twist the law,
-- as long as they get paid.