Disclaimer: I’m an Apple fanatic. I love its hardware, I love its software. I’ve evangelized the Mac platform to my friends, family and coworkers and I’m directly responsible for “switching” at least a dozen of them since becoming a believer myself in 2002. So, after you read this post, don’t try to claim I’m an Apple hater, because nothing could be further from the truth.

We talk a lot about the ways intellectual property stifles innovation once it attaches — the patent thickets created when dozens of companies claim rights to parts of the same widget-process, the hindrance to free expression and commentary posed by copyright clams to political imagery or culture — but lately, I’ve been wondering about the burdens of incipient intellectual property: when the vague promise of some potential future IP right causes people to share less and develop less value than optimal.

When Microsoft announced that it will no longer support former MSN Music customers who want to play their DRM disabled music on new computers, DRM-hating consumer advocates justifiably cried out, “I told you so!” But this debacle is not just another example of the dangers of DRM: its also a reminder of the danger of overreaching end user license agreements, or EULAs