The National Consumer Council in the UK says consumers are losing their rights to the music and videos they are purchasing. As content publishers try to fight piracy, they are making it more difficult for legitimate purchasers of digital content to actually play and own what they think they are buying. Publishers want restrictions on what machines can play what content (forcing hardware manufacturers to include built in controls), when it can be played, and how often.
The recent mess with Sony, in which the company's music CDs secretly installed software that changed the operating system was cited. It was not bad enough that Sony thought it was okay to alter the property of its customers without permission--the software left a gaping security hole after it was installed.