I agree, but I still think they share some blame. Professionals are humans, and they feel moral about how their craft is applied. Physicians for example take the Hippocratic Oath, which directly addresses this issue. The rest of the professions are contested in this regard, as far as I know, with attitudes ranging total responsibility to "I'm just taking orders".

Not everyone heard of DRM, and those that haven't have no reason to "research".

Not everyone from the remaining checks everything they buy for DRM.

Not everyone from the remaining realize the implications this may have on legit users (backups, conservation...)

Not everyone from the remaining is aware of the technicalities enough to know those technologies may be implemented in the CPU hardware and be revoked at a later time.

Not everyone from the remaining consider DRM to be a bad trade-off, no matter what we think about it, and our as well as their reasons for believing so.

Who are you to take all these, which is a huge part of those that have a possibility to pay those technologies, and call them all "idiot consumers"?

There are probably other areas you don't even realize exist, where to some guy, you are the idiot consumer that is the reason of a huge industry-wide issue still existing.

Outside of technical forums and tech-savvy friends, the only times I hear about DRMs is about video games. And it created reactions. Steam DRMs are easy to bypass, only a minority of games are using Denuvo, nearly no protections ask for kernel-level modules. Online does often rely on central server which is a shame, but most are still unaware the editor will close them one day, and we can hope for an outcry.

Is the real problem (putting aside the ones creating those devices or designing them) really the "stupid consumer" whose lack of knowledge of a subject is being abused to lock him, when no one is there in the circles they are in to educate them?

People can't be expected to know about everything. There's simply too much going on all the time. I'm sure you encountered many teachers, experts or professionals who think that their specialty is somehow The Thing that's overlooked by most and that's worthy of everyone's deeper consideration. I don't these people could agree which of theirs is the most important. And some people may not even have a single field where they're expert at, and I don't think they are any less for that.

So, what remains? What can we do if people are known to not bother with the things, yet we still want a better world for them, even if they don't know about it? Regulation is the answer, I think, and consistent improvement, and application of it. Education also comes into picture. I'm not even about the part as to what we should actually learn, but critical thinking should be taught somehow. And try to eliminate the Dunning-Kruger effect as much as we can.

everyone has a responsibility to not do anything reprehensible. Some people just do not have a very good value system. I, for example, would not, no matter the money offered, construct a prison for kidnapped kids, or software to scam elderly people of their life savings. I also would not produce shit like DRM. Some clearly will, and hopefully there is a place for them :)

>Build me a doorknob that shocks people.

Correct answer: No, that is dumb.

>No, really, it's cool, I pinky swear it'll always be paired with a doorknob grounder(TM) I paid some other guy to make.

You: It's just a doorknob for shocking people.

This is why we live in the worst timeline. Deep down, you know this to be true.