> how modern economics eliminate waste and inefficiency, this kind of DRM stands out as a counterexample
Ironically it's a product of the made up concept we call intellectual property that legal teams like to "protect" because they can ask the government to enforce their monopoly over the idea.
How is it that articles about DRM have people like you commenting who are critical of IP (I'm not disagreeing with you on that), but articles about AI being trained on GPL code, books, and art are full of people complaining about IP rights not being respected. Why don't the commenters cross-pollinate so the pro-IP guys can come here and say "We need DRM to protect artists' livelihoods" and the anti-IP guys can go there and say "AIs are doing God's work making information free like it wants to be".
Because both are really just totems for an actual discomfort about rent-seeking capital operating in abstract realms that just tangentially touch some relatable life experience.
Oh. Now that explains basically all the popular but inconsistent or controversial beliefs people have. I guess it's why you can't reason with someone about a political issue - the issue isn't the thing that's important to them, it's something more abstract that it represents.