The Center for Democracy and Technology released the paper "Evaluating DRM: Building a Marketplace for the Convergent World". It strikes a smart middle ground by not evaluating DRM against previous analog security measures, but against the full range of current consumer choices on the Internet.

The abstract:

As digital rights management technologies are increasingly integrated into media products, devices, and platforms, it is important for the public to understand the tradeoffs and choices associated with different DRM systems. With Sufficient information, competition between different DRM offerings can help promote a marketplace for digital media products that is diverse and responsive to reasonable consumer expectations. This paper seeks to contribute to the public discussion and understanding of DRM in the media marketplace by systematically reviewing the types of factors that product reviewers, consumer advocates, and members of the public may want to consider when evaluating products.