David Berlind at ZDNet wrote an article titled "The source of Steve Jobs’ paranoia: Cooperation." Berlind argues that cooperation between other manufacturers and video distribution service providers led to Job's plea that the RIAA and MPAA end their push for Digital Rights Management (DRM).  The cooperation between the other players directly threatened iTunes by finding innovative ways to lessen the inconvenience of DRM - especially as implemented by iTunes.

With regard to Jobs' sudden announcement about DRM, Berlin wonders why Jobs chose now to suddenly speak up.  He says:

Whether he knows it or not, I think John Falcone over on CNET's Crave blog has part of the answer:

Cooperation.

Speaking of the news from TiVo and Amazon that owners of Series 2 an
Series 3 TiVo boxes will be able to purchase or lease movies from
Amazon's UnBox service and have them show up in the TiVo's now playing
list (just as though it was traditionally TiVo-recorded content).

The cooperation between Amazon and Tivo have given them a competitive edge.