There was a time when I felt it was my divine right to access any computer I wanted, to crack any DRM, to break through any encryption, and to make the walls of digital walled gardens fall at my feet.

Amid all the hubbub over the launch of the new Amazon Kindle (at the Morgan Library in New York, 10 AM, be there and tell me what happened) two words are notably absent. There's a tantalizing hint in ...