I happen to care more about DVD ripping because I like it and I think it is going to become bigger, but most of my argument also holds if you're talking about w

I happen to care more about DVD ripping because I like it and I think it is going to become bigger, but most of my argument also holds if you're talking about watching DVDs on your laptop or desktop instead (which is completely mainstream). That being said, where did you get the idea that ripping CDs is nerdy? Where do you think the legions of iPods Apple has sold have gotten the overwhelming majority of their music? iTunes took plenty of time to get to where it is today and ripping was where (most of) the rest of the iPod music came from. To take a personal example, my wife has had an iPod for almost 6 years. Her iTunes Library is at least 80% ripped (maybe even 90%) despite the fact that she buys plenty of music from iTunes. Why? She had a substantial CD collection she ripped to start with. She also didn't stop buying CDs (things that you can't get on iTunes, autographed CDs or special attributes, new or used CDs on sale for less than they'd be on iTunes, ...). I'm also not claiming that Apple's reasons are absurd. I'm just saying that they have structural and institutional biases that might lead them to come to an incorrect conclusion about this particular point: the value of an optical drive. In other words, even though Apple has a pretty good batting average on these sorts of choices, there are reasons to think they might be wrong (in terms of what people will actually value) in this specific case.