Apple's lame DRM

Not to turn this entire site into an "apple sucks for the following reasons..." blog, but I expect more from them and feel that pointing out their faults and design decisions that go against their typical fine work is worth mentioning.

Today, I'm pissed at their iTunes Store DRM. I have two computers I use daily, an iPhone, and an AppleTV. All four devices allow me to buy things directly from the iTunes Store, but wherever you purchase a file, it stays. Sometimes when I'm traveling and I'm on my laptop but I wish I had a show I left on my desktop at home, I'll break down and go to the iTunes Store to get another copy. When you do something like that, you get this screen:

The thing that is broken for me is that you can playback iTunes purchased files on up to 5 computers, which I'm currently using less than the maximum of. Apple knows I've purchased the audio/video file before, and they know how many devices have ever played back that purchased file, but instead of allowing me to re-download the file to another computer capable of playing it, I'm forced to purchase a second copy.

I know I can just FTP the audio/video file from one machine to the next but sometimes you forget to do that before you leave the house. Or, you buy a TV show on your AppleTV, and that syncs to one computer, but not the other.

I really wish Apple would allow at least a few extra chances to download purchased media files. I've lost hard drives and had backup drives die as well, and it sure would be nice if they could let you see your entire purchase history and let you get things back you might have lost, or get second copies for your other devices.