Honestly, in most of the WP7 phones the SD card isn't accessible, so you'd never know. Does the locked hard drive on your xbox make you feel like a criminal?
I have mixed feelings about DRM. As a developer I like the protections it offers, but as a user I try to avoid it when I can. I'll freely admit it's not a consistent stance. Color me hypocritical.
> Does the locked hard drive on your xbox make you feel like a criminal?
I don't own an Xbox. And it's different - I don't create content with a game console. I don't even read e-mail on one. I most certainly don't write on one.
A phone is a different beast, much closer to the "general-purposeness" of a computer. On my phone, I browse the web, write e-mail, take pictures and transfer them to various different services. I keep music on it and subscribe and listen to podcasts the phone downloads directly.
It bothers me to see such a device locked down with DRM.
I too write software for a living, but I don't sell software for phones. If I had to, I would probably aim for a low price and treat pirates as a form of promotion.
Other approaches would limit the utility of the SD card (in the phone) and needlessly expose to users the difference between "flash" and "SD" storage. This is awkward and counterintuitive for users, who will wonder why they can't install more than x GB of apps on their phone sold with x + y GB of storage (where x is flash and y is SD). Such is the current state of Android.
I'll stop here, but basically, in this case none of the activities you mentioned are hindered (all can be accessed via USB). The DRM simply helps ensure that all storage on the phone can be treated equally as trusted. It allows the OS to assume all storage is the same, and enables it to use all the storage on the phone for all purposes.
Luckily, there are many options in the market, and users can vote with their money :)
I have mixed feelings about DRM. As a developer I like the protections it offers, but as a user I try to avoid it when I can. I'll freely admit it's not a consistent stance. Color me hypocritical.