Something is going seriously wrong here. We need to rethink the connection between DRM and Piracy.

Piracy is something happening on internet downloads, it's something feeding bootleggers and professional brand imitators. That's piracy. It has nothing to do with what is happening right now!!!

DRM is something impacting the regular customer more than any pirate. Modern DRM is restricting the ability of the customer to resell a product or lend it to a friend (Try giving Spore to your pal over the weekend, go ahead, try). We would never accept this if we bought a car. Why would we accept it if we buy a piece of software? We feel as much entitled to own that CD and everything on it, as we are entitled to own a sedan. Riccitiello tries to shift our perspective from "buying" a game towards "basically you are renting it forever".

Have you ever sold a game on Steam? Have you ever traded an Xbox Live or PSN game with a friend? Were you ever able to go to a video rental place and get Spore, Bioshock or other new DRM games? This is the impact DRM has on the customers, the pirates are not impacted by it at all, they were never the target to begin with. It has been like that since the dawn of copylocks and it will continue.

Look at how huge Gamestop has become by reselling used games. That's not 0.2% of the market, that is big business and every customer participating knows the value of a boxed copy over the value of a Steam DLC version. As long as DRM takes away that value of lending to a friend and reselling a title, we the customers will not believe a single word Mr. Riccitiello says. It would be easy for DRM NOT to remove those features, but the publishers WANT to have those options removed from the customer.

I say give us the Steam Flea market where I can resell one of my games and a portion of the money foes to the developer. That's DRM used in a way not impacting customers.

@ Fireballof3: I agree in general. But for some, it literally is about the protest.

I can't say I've done it about software, but for music, I have pirated because I'm protesting. I have honestly wanted to buy CD's. Badly. I wanted Gorillaz Demon Days so much it caused tingling in my fingers, but I refused to buy it. In fact, Metallica's antics pissed me off so much I won't even pirate them. I just pretend they don't exist.

I'm not generalizing, and you shouldn't either. There are certainly people out there who are doing this only for free crap, but there are others who do it for more than just a freebie. Furthermore, there is no need to rationalize. People may simply be taking it because they can. They only need to rationalize if they would have otherwise purchased it, and if they would have, well that's their own moral quandary to deal with. I, for example, download the newest versions of various 3D programs such as Lightwave. I never use them. I just have them. No real reason. If I never use them, but download them, am I still stealing?

In regards to WoW, I assume you have never played it. They don't give away the client. They, in fact, charge a pretty penny considering you then have to pay monthly. $39.99 for WoW and Burning Crusade, and another $39.99 for the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King. And the examples of Starcraft II and Diablo 3 would be foolish. Unlike WoW, which requires massive server farms maintaining a persistent world outside of the client, multiplayer games in the vein of Starcraft and Diablo are based on individual, closed sessions. If Blizzard starts checking before each sign-in, they'll simply drive pirate players to hosting servers that won't check.

And finally, video game systems are a different animal. They don't have something that could be specifically called DRM. They have an inherent copy protection insofar as they are closed development and user environments. There isn't a usability issue since the game and system are designed to operate with each other exclusively. You simply insert disc, press 'ON'.

Yeah, only the small minority of us have to put up with DRM...

I had to rebuild my PC and had to deal with DRM from 3 separate programs.
1. Microsoft Money (yeah, I'm nuts but it's not a bad program)
2. AVS4YOU... It's OK for getting stuff from the odd formats to a standard format
3. Alcohol 120% (the best DRM EVER!!! I wish everyone else would take a clue from these guys who have had it together for years!)

Yeah, I've been mostly on the up on my software for nearly 15 years now, since Windows 95... And annoyed by crappy DRM. Overall I've been ripped off the most from craptastic games by EA who I don't buy games from anymore, unless they are in the bargain bin... and had HIGH ratings months after release.

I had to rebuild 2 friends PC's... Yep, DRM saved the day... NOT

Hands down, DRM has added more fuel to the fire that is piracy.

DRM only gives as much security as airport security does, merely an illusion of safety.

No DRM can hold back piracy and this current mess we find ourselves in only hurts honest consumers.
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Just a week ago I wanted to play my copy of ES 4: Oblivion, but to my surprise i was

"Out of Activations"

Why should I be out of activations, I own the damn game don't I?
I felt violated, so I wrote D2D.com a semi nasty letter saying I would never shop there again and that I wanted more activations.

If honest PC gamers have to go through all the shit to play their games, then I can see why piracy can look more attractive.

Case in point, I want to know I own the game, not feel like I'm borrowing it.

I have already purchased Demigod from Stardock/GPG b/c I respect their trust in us gamers.