Downloading a crack is not illegal.  Same as downloading a no-CD crack for a game you own isn't illegal.

@Ail, I will complain about wrongs because if I don't complain (I may get pent up rage issues), but if I don't complain then nothing will change.  So when stupid thinks like Starforce, DRM limited installs, etc. are put into games I will complain until things are corrected.

It's not illegal to circumvent DRMs?  Weird.

Same with the no-CD crack eh?

a lot of us are of the type to reformat once a year or so.
kinda sucks that we only have 3 chances.... the game better also be damn near infallible, because in most cases an uninstall reinstall is the best choice for troubleshooting

I'm no lawyer, but I thought circumventing any DRM at all was made illegal by the DMCA in the US.

This might be one of those legal grey areas which have yet to be fully tested by the court system.

I've reinstalled several games onto my computer... Sometimes I get a crash that I need to reformat the hard drive for, sometimes I just need the extra space, and others times I haven't even played the game in awhile so I'll remove it. I don't want limitations on how many times I can use something. Wouldn't it suck major arse if you could only listen to an MP3 you bought on iTunes about five times?

Plus, what the hell is DRM trying to do in the first place? Isn't it supposed to prevent piracy? I was under the impression Spore was cracked before the game was even released.

Sorry dude, but that's complete BS. Sounds like you work for EA there. I don't care what technicality says about my hardcopies. If I buy a game on Xbox 360, I know that I'll have that game forever. If the world ends, I will be able to find a broken Xbox 360, fix it, and play my game on it, because I bought and paid for it.

I also rent games. I use gamefly.

I don't rent games for 60 dollars, and if I did, they would be a hell of a lot better than Spore.

Muct less, you didn't even address the SecuRom, or whatever, that's like an uninstallable virus that always runs in the background and uses computer resources, which is unremovable sans a reformat, or so I hear.

I have a huge game collection. Yes, I want them to still work in 10 years. So does everybody else.

Not to mention there is very little purpose whatsoever, in any of this DRM crap in the first place. Is someone is smart enough to use a no-CD crack, they're smart enough to pirate the game. When the pirated version is superior, you have an issue. Especially in an age when PC gamers actually prefer to download their games.

It's more like a feel good measure which is probably pushed by the upper management of publishers.

I imagine it goes something like this:

1- EA top director (maybe CEO) reads a (probably flawed and exaggerated) article about how piracy is hurting the media business. He actually loses an hour of sleep over this.
2- Said director creates new goal for the company - "Diminish the impact of piracy on our business". He feels good.
3- Upper management reads this goal and creates a technical group to study possible measures.
4- Technical group realises the closest they'll ever get to hurt piracy is to implement a really strict and draconian DRM scheme.
5- Technical group writes proposal for DRM scheme including budget. They know it won't do much, but they want to keep their jobs and the managers happy, so they happily do it.
6- Upper management approves proposal. It's not that expensive anyway, it will easily get lost within the high budget of the game.
7- Implementation teams are created to implement DRM scheme on games. Everyone kept their job, so everyone is happy.

As you can notice, at no point was any serious financial study done on the impact of the DRM scheme. Of course, this is just hypothetical but I wouldn't be surprised if the actual process was something close to this.

When I hit the 3 install limits I'll just pirate it and make a copy for every single one of my friends. I'm not putting up with bullshit from any company, it's stupid for them to be pissing off the customers when it would take a potential customer 2 minutes to find the game illigally and 3 hours after that to own it.

Don't even get me started on Sony's Rootkit. This is DRM to the extreme, but the bottom line is that it was illegal and should've never been implemented.

To the person who said you never "own" a song, movie, etc: No one in their right mind would ever claim things like royalties or anything if they had nothing to do with it, but here's the deal, if I pay $15 for a CD, or a DVD, I damn well better be able to listen to or watch it whenever and wherever I want to. I should not be limited by the number of CD players or DVD players I can use to play said media.

The more rights we let these companies take from us, the more they'll want. This will continue to the point where they can restrict how long we can play a game before they deactivate it (DRM server "crashes" anyone?) or even further than that.

 I think it falls into a weird grey area that has not been clarified. I know for a fact it is illegal to crack DRM. Stripping it completely is also illegal, but there has never been a clear cut descision on simply maneuvering around it is. I wanna say there is a part of fair use that can be twisted to allow for circumvention. All signs point to it being ruled illegal if it came down to a court case but to my knowledge that has not happened as yet.