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purely by the rules, in 3.5, you MUST concentrate on Detect Magic for each round it is active.  Look up the rules on concentrating on spells - the limitations and requirements.  I'm pretty sure he won't want to have to do that all the time.

I have not, however, played 3.5 in a while, so i might be mistaken on this last point.  i BELIEVE that you cast detect magic, then concentrate for up to 3 rounds to get the details.  I'm not sure if you must recast it everytime you....say....move, or look/focus on something new.  I'm pretty sure people would question him stopping and staring for 3 rounds every time he moves.


Now, to the real issue, or lack thereof.  Why is it an issue?  except for corner cases, our group has pretty much done away with detect magic (in 4e).  Its much easier to simply describe something as working magically (magic effects tend to be obvious) and magic weapons are "extra fancy looking."  The only time detect magic comes up is when the party runs into magical traps, which, more often than not, are part of an encounter, which makes them function dynamically as part of the encounter instead of simply as an obstacle that the party must overcome in a vacuum (a reverse gravity corridor in a castly is nifty, but a pointless, easily overcome obstacle....a reverse gravity portion of a room in the middle of a fight in the wizard's tower is a dynamic and interesting feature that can be used by either side).