DRM consequences, controversies and examples

Several DRM schemes have been implemented. Many see them as "abuse" of copyright (often called eSlavery in Europe); DRM proponents have seen them as a "reasonable balance of consumer concerns and artist rights."

Digital imprimatur
Inclusion of commercials on the "unskippable track" on DVDs reserved for the copyright notice;
Using the DMCA to restrict access to items that do not qualify for copyright, such as garage door openers and printer ink cartridges;
Adding restrictions on text-to-speech conversion in the EULA of e-books;
BBC IMP trial for downloads of DRM-encrypted audio and video files; uses the Kontiki peer to peer file distribution system. Allows no user control of the background up and downloading, leading to considerable slowing of user PCs and potential exhaustion of allowed data transfers without warning due to the nature of peer to peer type operations, with only the option to shut down the user's computer or disconnect from the Internet. BBC content is time-limited and will only play on the machine to which it was downloaded or an officially authenticated device participating in Microsoft's DRM scheme.
Sky's 'Sky By Broadband' scheme also uses Kontiki with similar results.
Using Copy Control schemes to thwart the existing statutory and common law exceptions to copyright holder control (such as fair use), as for instance in regional coding of media (such as in DVDs);
The possibility of dominant DRM-inclusive recording and playback technology being used uncritically by users unaware of the dangers and consequences thereof, and potentially later locking them out of their own creations, as with SCMS in consumer-grade DAT equipment;
Preventing academic publication and distribution of information relating to flaws in computer security in the absence of the permission of the creators of said technologies;
Silencing individuals who have found serious flaws in software used in electronic voting.
Restriction of medical records and personal financial information using DRM to protect consumer rights. Insurers, lawyers and loan companies have strongly objected to the use of these technologies to prevent patient, hospital and practitioner records being more freely accessible due to copy and forward restriction applied to patient or customer records.
As of 2005, in American dental schools students are required to purchase textbooks on DVD. The DVDs are readable only on an authorized computer and only for a limited time, after which the DVD expires and the information in the "DVD book" becomes unreadable. Some of these books are not available on paper at all. The New York Association of Copyright Stakeholders have protested and documented this at http://fairuse.nylxs.com with the help of NYLXS.
Stopping or making archival of the content, even allowed such like in libraries, hard or impossible to do due to practical and technical reasons - especially when considering that the content should still be accessible even if the publisher disappears (bankruptcies etc).
TiVo 7.2 OS adds content access restrictions, blocks transfers, and auto-deletes some shows
The 2005 Sony CD copy protection scandal
Aesthetic objections to onscreen DRM threats interfering with relaxing and watching a movie.
The Swedish Pirate Party wants to outlaw most forms of DRM.
The legal inability to disable DRM restrictions, even if they "threaten critical infrastructure and potentially endanger lives"
Many DRM systems restrict playback to a single device and, to date, no provider has offered to renew this licence when the device is upgraded.
Some WMDRM protected files will install spyware such as Zango when the user agrees to retrieve a license to play the file.

Copyright law has been defined in terms of general definitions of infringement in any concrete medium. This classic approach focused such law on whether or not there is infringement, rather than focus on particular engineering techniques. Legislators have in several instances chosen not to prohibit new technologies (for example piano rolls, radio broadcasting, and audio tape recording in both Congress and the Supreme Court in the US). Critics of DRM assert that detecting and prosecuting infringement within the social and legal system avoids a legacy of outlawing generic, universal, popular, widespread, useful, and possibly uncontrollable in any case engineering techniques in response to specific misuses.

Copyright law vs. particular techniques