It's annoying and I've complained about it before, and will continue to do so, but I have to join the chorus saying it's not something that pushes piracy.
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Unfortunately the public at large has shown that it's willing to play those games and still shell out dough for discs
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DVD's at their current sell-through price of $15-$20 are a fantastic bargain. They cost a little less than VHS tapes for the majority of their run, and a lot less than they did in relative terms due to inflation. It costs less to buy a movie on DVD than it does to see it in a theater with a date. IMHO, theaters have become the hardback format to DVD's paperback. People buy hardbacks mostly not because the experience of reading the story in hardback is somehow better, but because they don't want to wait a year for paperback. In a good theater with a courteous audience, the viewing experience is generally superior to at home, and some movies don't benefit at all.
Brokeback Mountain is a must see in the theater due to the gorgeous nature shots that fill the movie, but for most, a decent home theater is rapidly closing in. We see more movies at home now chiefly because the chance of getting a decent audience anywhere other than the arthouse sucks. We've been trying to hit Tuesdays or Wednesday matinees when possible for that reason.
Back on topic: Add in all of the technological advantages of a DVD--picture quality, direct access, special features, surround sound, etc.--and they're the best consumer home video format in terms of quality and in terms of value ever.
Of course consumers keep snapping them up, they're worth the hassels, much as we might hate things like forced ads and trailers.
We generally pop the dvd into the player a few minutes ahead of time, then get everything ready. By the time we're ready to watch, it's on the menu. It's annoying when they play on their own after two minutes, but that's a tradeoff I can live with most of the time.
Gilda