It's been a while since we last heard about legal customers being screwed by DRM, but Amazon and Microsoft have stepped up to the plate to help.

Turns out that Amazon's Kindle ebooks will lock you out after you replace your Kindle a few times. Exactly how many times you're allowed to replace your Kindle is a secret, and varies from book to book. A book could be locked to a single Kindle. But if you get onto the Kindle train, eventually you'll upgrade and one or more of your books will no longer be available to you.

Microsoft won't stand to be outdone. Microsoft has gone further and taken paid for music away from a customer. Microsoft lost the license to distribute some music and reached out to destroy copies on their customers devices. This particular user had "purchased" $100 of music. Now it's gone. Microsoft didn't even give him a refund, although presumably he doesn't want $100, he wants the music he paid for.

In both cases we are reminded: if you download an illegal copy from the internet, not only is it free of charge, but it's free of these encumbrances. That HTML copy of a book from Usenet, or that MP3 from P2P will continue working just fine. This is the DRM model: offer you crippled goods are a higher price. I'm in favor of copyright and paying creators, but I'm also in favor of not kicking the customers in the face.