Many readers pointed out that DVD publishers already often require customers to view their ads or promos before they can view the content they paid to see. "The practice of forcing purchasers of DVD's to watch ads/previews/logos is extremely annoying," wrote one reader. "Paramount DVDs are especially bad in that you have to wait for the opening logo to come up before you can choose main menu or movie. Fox DVDs show a bunch of warnings on a red background, but at least you can quickly chapter-skip through them. Fortunately, tools like AnyDVD or DVD Decrypter can remove those restrictions. It's the next generation of HD-DVD/Blu-Ray that I'm concerned with. It will be awhile before the copy protection technologies are broken on those. So, there's going to be all kinds of forced ads/logos/previews on them. Hopefully, consumers will revolt against the practice and refuse to buy them, but I'm not holding my breath on that happening."

And it might not just be television commercials we're forced to watch. "Will the movie theaters lock their doors at the start of the commercials and force us to watch 20 minutes of ads before the movie starts?" another reader wrote. "Will the magazine advertisers force us to read all their print ads in order to read the articles? Consumers willingly pay for one thing, but are forced to take or view other content as well ... even content that may be offending to them. Where does this end?"

Another reader had an answer for that question: "Where does it end? When to view a DVD, webpage, etc., you must first view an ad, and then correctly answer a brief, computer-administered 'reading comprehension' test that proves you viewed the ad instead of leaving the room, skipping it, or having your browser block it somehow."

After noting the popularity of HDTV devices that are not yet broadcast-flag compatible and industry efforts to even restrict analog devices, one reader started looking at his old equipment in a new light. "I recently tossed three old VCRs because they were broken, and with the cost of repairs so much higher than the cost of a replacement unit, figured it wasn't worth the effort," he wrote. me. "I am beginning to think I made a mistake. Do you suppose my old 2X CD drive that I got with my Mac in 1998 might be worth something after all?"

Maybe so. In fact, I'm wondering if it might not be a good idea to hold on to any pre DRM-era TV sets, DVD players, CD drives, Tivo or other DVRs, hard drives, motherboards, and versions of Windows and other software that don't have to activated. What do you think? Write me at Foster@gripe2ed.com or post your comments below.