Well, if they do the DRM right, it works the opposite way. The binary is encrypted and will not run without it being decrypted by the chip and maybe some more. The whole chain to start the process is also verified with checksums etc., so one should not be able (easily) to dump the unencrypted version from the memory. The same way the whole audio chain is locked when an DRM'd music is played.

Depends, if the price is right and I'll be able to get my data out of the software when I want so I could move it somewhere else (no lock-in), I would consider buying DRM'd stuff. Furthermore, I understand what the money lost by widespread "free copy" means for a small business doing quality work. Not always, but often, the open source stuff just is missing the last mile to be that tangible "quality". That is what the businesses should and have to do if they want to sell their stuff.

But.. DRM should not be forced, so that all commercial software would to be locked - most of it will be anyways cracked. I think better way to fight common piracy is the "release often" - people like to have the latest version with all the nice whistles and bells and they won't have it if they pirate stuff. Other thing what companies have been doing is to have value adding services online which are not available for pirates.

That is one of my fears too.. and what I'm more worried is obsolesce by software. The device would be obsolete not because of the hardware would not do the job but because of the software can not be updated to stay current.

Suppose that your device will be 2 years old and still working perfectly. The support has ended for your product as now there are new devices with ARM&LEG2000 chip which has some nice new and enhanced talents. The OSS has progressed in these years and you would like to upgrade it to make it faster and nicer, as you can do with any old PC with Ubuntu. You would also install some new commercial software, but your old libraries are not supported anymore. But if your update your kernel and base libraries, all DRM'd stuff you bough will stop working. Consequently, as your device is old and not supported the outside source software stack will never be supported. Now, if you think 2 years too short time for this to happen, then think 4, 6.. To give some though, this is already happening. My gf is using my old 770 while commuting and is perfectly happy OS2008HE setup I have rolled in, but I can see that the software is now bitrotting.. (Fortunately there is no DRM'd software, I have high hopes for Mer )