"Had an app for that..."

Looks like Apple, in a bid to stop some very marginal illegal (or grey) app-copying, may be considering removing our ability to re-download apps we've purchased over the air. iPhone 3.0 is still in beta, of course, and the reports of those who are running it vary (not surprisingly), but some users are reporting that if you try to re-download an app that you've purchase (as I've had to when my daughter accidentally deletes an app by pressing too long on an icon on the home screen and then taps the "X" that appears) some versions of the 3.0 beta won't let you re-download over the air without paying - instead they require you to re-download it via iTunes and sync your device, an inconvenient process which I avoid as much as possible! My two bits, for whatever they're worth:

1. If you've purchased an app, it's yours - you shouldn't have to re-purchase it for any reason!
2. I really, really hope Apple finds another way to resolve this - or at the very least enables syncing with iTunes over WiFi. That wouldn't eliminate the annoying sync process, but at least it would avoid the unnecessary hassle of having to hunt down a physical cable and leave your phone tethered to your computer for an extended period of time.

All that being said, this could all be cited as a classic example of our society's "instant entitlement" attitude - when one considers how difficult re-installing software on a desktop can be (grr... DRM!), having to physically sync one's phone with iTunes is not really that much of a hassle that it's worth complaining about. Still, when a technological convenience exists and then is taken away from us, it shouldn't be surprising if we see it as an unnecessary and inconsiderate step backwards...