Yes, but it's a two-part process. Bits are very easy to copy around, and providing an easy way of giving money will only get you so far. What happens when the alternative of pirating is just as easy, but doesn't require money? If you want to make a nicer experience, you will eventually have to make pirating harder.
> DRM doesn't even remotely stop the spread of content.
Of course it does! No, it doesn't stop you. You know what torrents are, you know which torrents are likely to be viruses and which are in formats your computer is capable of reading. Many people out there know none of that, but can easily find the itunes button on their ipads. And all of those people have no way of sharing the things they buy, thanks to DRM.
> Name one real-world DRM system that makes piracy look less attractive for content (movies, music, books).
Here's another: Netflix. All you do is give Netflix a little bit of money each month, and then you don't have to worry about starting the download a couple hours before you want to start watching. You don't have to worry about getting caught under the new six-strikes program. You can't easily copy what Netflix gives you thanks to good old DRM, but that doesn't really hurt you.
This doesn't have anything to do with DRM, though. If DRM didn't exist, people would still easily find the iTunes button on their iPad, and would still have a hard time navigating torrents and file format issues. All DRM seems to do is slowly teach those who can't authorize that nth device to learn how to torrent.
Unless you happen to run a non-mainstream OS. Or move to Mexico. In which case it hurts you all the way.
I have 8 devices in my house that can play Netflix and only 1 ubuntu machine that can't -- but only because I don't want to go through the headache of patching WINE.
People have gotten Netflix working on Ubuntu before.
The only successful shops I can think of, such as Amazon, Steam, etc., aren't successful due to DRM (at least, not from the piracy perspective). It's due to an easier shopping experience, with the DRM getting out of the way. I'm not sure you can even meaningfully call Amazon MP3's approach DRM: it's just watermarking.
Pirating content is trivial and easy. In order to compete, you have to make an as-nice experience. Buying a book on the Kindle store is _easier_ than torrenting the book (if only slightly) - DRM has nothing to do with this aspect. DRM doesn't even remotely stop the spread of content.
The only time I've heard DRM being remotely effective is really complicated systems on games, delaying a crack by a week or so, which apparently increases sales (at the cost of plenty of bad-will from paying customers) - although I'm not aware of any published studies that really investigate that and compare to the negative sides. This is the only time your analogy of medicine delaying death makes sense; one small use case, and only for specific programs, not general content.
But for content? DRM is a non-solution, really.