The media companies know we'll always eventually be able to bypass any DRM they place on their media. But they still feel obligated to use it, partly for legal reasons. If they make their content available through a completely unrestricted video stream and then try to sue someone who infringes on their copyright, the defense's first question will be "well if you didn't want someone copying your content why didn't you place any of the available restrictions on it?" I don't think this would be a valid argument but it's not a risk many media companies would probably want to take.
> If they make their content available through a completely unrestricted video stream
That was my point. Why is it completely unrestricted? How hard is it to check a cookie and 401 if I'm not logged in? And if someone can fake an HTTPS cookie, they can do a lot more damage than download a video.
