It's been said so many times, but I just got stung hard by the DRM bug, and since there's a "Senior Associate Editor" next to my name somewhere I get to complain about it. Now, if you're a regular consumer with a modicum of common sense, nothing I'm going to say here will come as a surprise or revelation. You're welcome to come along for the ride, but I'm pointing my quivering pen today at the media execs and their willing technologist accomplices that have the nerve in 2010 to enforce HDCP and other completely inane DRM and copy protection schemes to "protect" their content from theft:

You idiots.

Let me tell you my story. I bought one of your movies on iTunes. It's called "An Education," and I've heard very good things. Sure, $15 is a lot to pay for a movie I'll probably only watch once or twice (no rental option was available), but I was stuck in an airport and desperate for something decent to pass the time with. After reading a profile on Carey Mulligan in Vogue at the Hudson News I was completely smitten and decided to watch her Oscar-nominated role no matter the cost. Since my laptop was out of battery, iTunes was my only option, and I attempted to download the movie directly to my iPad. Unfortunately, you can't start watching a download on the iPad until it's completed, and the slow airport WiFi only had me 2/3rds of the way before I had to board my flight.

Typically I wouldn't complain about not being able to download a movie on my airplane flight home, that's historically been an internet free zone, but despite that blessed Gogo Inflight Internet being available on my particular flight I still managed to encounter frustration in my quest to watch my film of choice: the port through which my iPad was attempting to download "An Education" over was apparently blocked, so I