It do not require Steam but it was not possible to find it in store... have make a trip from Belgium to London UK for find it... always the same reply : "stock are empty but we can order it"... so, i have buy it on Steam since on Impulse, it is US only !

> DAO also didn't require EA login except for the DLC... Personally I'm fine with that because you can still play the game offline if you like you just can't use the DLC which honestly I've never really been that into any way. DLC tends to be over priced extra content that doesn't fit very well into the game because it was made after release.

In fact, i think that a lot of DLC are already planned before the game release... some DLC are over prized but not all... by example, i enjoy the "Stone prisonner" for DAO who give me the golem Shale ( she have a lot of humor ) and she is a perfect tank... no EA server, not Shale golem...

> And your comparison to physcial objects that can't be simply copied isn't really a valid comparison.

Car can be copied; plan of house, too.. same for clock, parfum, drugs, alcohol, mobile phone, etc ... Custom catch a huge amount of these copy each year... this is piracy too... in some case, it can be very dangerous to use pirated/copied product... phone battery who explode, drugs who don't heal you but have toxic product in it, etc

> Kinda like how the Music industry originally try to make it illegal to record songs off the radio when cassettes first came out.

In fact, in my country, we are already paying for make copy... on any blank support ( cassette, video tape, blank CD, blank DVD, etc ), there is a author tax... these money go to the author in theory but in fact, it go to the big distributor... point is that personal copy is legal in my country and we pay for it...  

> the gaming industry should take some pointers from music industry and release that if they provide easy hassle free access to their products at a reasonable price then that will do far more to curb piracy then any DRM or legislation.

Very true... now, i buy all my music via internet... have begin so after the well know CD of Celine Dion who was impossible to play in a bunch of CD player, in my case a auto CD player... in fact, legal MP3 store on the Net have almost make me double my budget for Music... at 0.15 euro a song or around 1-2 euro a album, it is a lot cheaper that the 20 euro for one single CD in store... being able to have more for the same amount of money have lead me slowly to spend more that previously...

Same thing with films... online renting is fun, cheap, and easy... 1 euro, you make your choice and look your film ( in the next 24 hours )... no more need of torrent R5 release ( bad sound/picture film ) taken in Cinema, no more need to wait after a slow torrent download ( being French speaking, torrent have few seeder and rare )...   

Now about game, what worry me with all these DRM and online check is that it put a certain dead on your purchased game... by example, i always play Harpoon, a game buy 20 year ago... what about actual game ? Server who host certification for DRM are not free, it is a recurrent expense for the publisher... soon of later, sell will drop and what will happen ? End of the game due to dead server ?

I think that the actual trend of game devs/distributor is not very different that the prohibition in the US in the year 1920-1933 : "While Prohibition was successful in reducing the amount of liquor consumed, it tended to destroy society by other means, as it stimulated the proliferation of rampant underground, organized and widespread criminal activity". Game devs/distributor action lead to a loose of legal sell and a increase of piracy...

Yea that's called counterfeiting and fraud and it's not quite the same. With digital copies you can make an exact copy of something not an imitation. Also a lot of counterfeiters pretend that it's the real thing and it's just some bulk/warehouse discount. Of course other times people know they are buying knock offs which is fine because the person knows it's not real and it's just a look they are going for. It's the counterfeiters who con people into thinking they are getting the real thing that are the problem especially with things like medication and other unsafe items.

I agree with that. Like the article I linked above. The more they push the larger the problem becomes. Laws and Legality are meaningless in the end. It all comes down to economics with supply and demand. People want the goods and services provided in a reasonable manner for a reasonable price and if the devs/distributors won't provide it they will find someone who will.