Yeah I get what you're saying. If only people would stop pirating games, it would be a whole lot better for everyone.

I agree with both ken007, and sahib. If only there were a way to show these knuckle heads that the majority of the people who play their games are honest people who don't want to have displaced anger directed at us instead of where it should be. The pirates. We don't deserve their anti-pirate countermeasures. We are the consumers not the thieves!

Sad, but undeniable truth is that pirates can't be stopped. Ever. No matter how advanced and "perfect" those anti-piracy systems will get - they will get cracked. Publisher's shouldn't be trying to stop piracy - they can't. Instead, they should do everything in their power to make a paid product more attractive than the illegal copy. That is what I love about GoG.com - sure, I could get most off these games off the torrent sites, but why bother, when here I can pay a little amount of money and get a legal copy, redesigned to run on modern systems and with many extras.
What publishers need to discover, is:
1. People want to be legal, and they want to support you - just don't make it so damn difficult.
2. Forget about pirates - they wouldn't buy your game anyway, and you cannot stop them no matter what you do.
Right now - using Spore as an example - illegal copies are far superior to the legal ones... How illogical and stupid that makes the EA and Ubisoft look?

Exactly. For further proof of this they need to talk to their cohorts that make DVD's and CD's.

This is a radical idea, but they're supposedly implementing DRM to prevent piracy and keep people buying the game. If you don't buy the game it's only going to get pirated.. it sounds like to remove DRM you need to convert pirates to buyers..
anyway, it's radical and probably impossible, there are always going to be pirates, but it's just a thought.

Every pirate? Every single last one? The only way that's gonna be possible is if the corporations attach a machine-gun toting "Copyright Officer" to every computer in the world.
Now here's an idea for EA to use, eh?

Don't give them any ideas.

When EA's PC games cost are in the Bargain Bin at say the rental price that a console game would cost at your local Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, I might be willing to jump...

Me too... IF they've also patched out the DRM. If the DRM's still part of the package, then I wouldn't even take it free.

That's how I feel about DRM as well. I won't even load it if it's free. I found a copy of X2 at Big Lots for 99 cents, and never loaded it because it's got Starforce on it. It's still in the shrinkwrap with the 99 cent price tag on it. I'd even love to play the game, but not if it requires having a background process loaded onto my computer.
Some of us do real work with their computers. My PC, for example, is used for music production. I'm not willing to take the risk that some game that I loaded will infect my computer with DRM that breaks my DVD burner. That could cost me big time.
Also, I'm a collector as a much as a gamer. I sometimes go back and play games many years after they are released. Product activation is like renting a game. There's no guarantee it will be playable later.
So I only load games I am SURE don't have DRM. At least with console games you can put the disc in the drive and know that the game will play. So most of my game purchases at present are for consoles.
When the PC gaming companies get past this sick, pointless fascination with DRM, I'll come back to buying new games for the PC.

If I remember rightly the latest patch for X2 removes the need for having the CD in the drive. So long as you patch the game BEFORE you run it for the first time you should be able to avoid having the DRM install itself.
I would check with the developers first though to make sure.

For me anything that limites the amount of times I can install a product and requires activation of any form (For the initial game or patching) is NOT acceptiable. After paying good money for a game I don't expect to have to beg that I am entitled to install/run said game.
I also install games years after they were first published. Do you really expect EA and the like to have the activation servers running after all the time? Do you really expect them to spend money creating a patch to remove DRM after a few years when the return on that will not even cover the costs of developing it. Hell they don't even leave old multiplayer servers running!
I'm sure I read somewhere that Bioshock would have its DRM removed after a year (God knows how they would do it as the DRM runs during install to downloads additional content and authorise the game to run) and they have not done it.
Pitty there is not a GNG.COM (Good New Games) that operates on the same principals as GOG>COM!

HAHA, another lot of accurate EA satistics! Just like they 'guess' at pirate numbers == lost sales.
Over the last couple years I have worked out that I would have spent about £300+ on EA, Take Two, Ubisoft, Valve & Stardocks games if they did not have such restrictive DRM in them. That might not be a lot of money to them but its a lot to me.
Instead I have spent some of it on older games including Starcraft and games from GOG.COM.
Oh and I aslo bought Sword of the Stars CE. This game is completely DRM free. Sort of Rome Total War in space. Never would have found out about it if not for the DRM infected games that I didn't buy! So some positive things have come out of DRM indirectly.

Actually, they DID remove the installation limit, but SecuROM is still there and it does still require online activation on first running the game.

Yes, Egosoft's X2: The Threat and X3: Reunion BOTH have had their CD-check removed with their most recent patches. So, yes -- after installing the patch, you don't need the CD to boot the game up anymore -- yay!
Those patches don't completely remove them StarForce drivers from your PC period -- keep that in mind. If you want to remove the StarForce drivers, I think SF has a utility you can download to remove them.