It's not a question about the reality of the piracy situation, because that hasn't changed since the VHS copy protection days. Simply having some sort of protection there - no matter how ineffective - gives them legally-effective leverage to go after those bypassing it. You cannot, as a stakeholder (content producer, actor, etc), argue in good conscience for no protection whatsoever in a commercial venture.

Yes, there is a major distribution, availability, region and device-lockdown issue to be solved. But removing all protection is just the brute-force, blanket solution that is understandably one-sided and thus unworkable.

> Simply having some sort of protection there - no matter how ineffective - gives them legally-effective leverage to go after those bypassing it.

Use JavaScript, then.

But they'll always have the alternative option of providing content through iTunes/their own crappy locked down system.