And BP was sure that if there was some future unforseen problem with one of their underwater wells, they'd just cap it.

Statements like that one get my hackles up. It's a large corporate entity saying "trust us, we'll take care of you" when, in general, large corporate entities (and Microsoft in particular) have proven to be the farthest thing from trustworthy. Large corporate entities are a species of their own that feeds entirely on shareholder stake and profit margins, and evolves entirely in response to them. I don't believe for one second that shutting down the copy protection system on the console would be something they'd do even after its life cycle is over. It would still be in their corporate-entity-life-form's best interest to keep the copy protection turned on.