I am surprised that for how long online piracy has been around there is a paucity of state and federal laws handling it as a criminal matter. We all know through examples of the music industry suing individuals, that they would love to find a way, DRM or not, to discourage piracy to the extent where the college student downloading movies off of Bit Torrent will fear that he/she will be caught, gets expelled out of college, faces a 1 to 5 year prison sentence, and comes out as an ex con with a felony on their record.
Hopefully, with DRM this may raise the issue to the level of the US Supreme Court where they rule that onlne piracy is a violation of interstate commerce, thus putting it within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government and the Feds from there can enact a US law that classifies online piracy in the same veins of organized crime trafficking contraband across state lines.
Personally, I do not believe DRM will stop anybody. What will stop individuals is the fear of serious jail time and a felony on their record making them damn near unemployable in the United States. Furthermore, a law in this spirit would discourage online pirates in other countries because they would face extradition and prison time in the US.
