This sucks for people who use this service but frankly, don't blame EA.  Blame the thieves who steal and distribute countless copies/pirated versions of games and jack the price up and cause issues like drm and DL rights fees.

There is nothing EA can do to lose more respect from me than they already have, I do, however, hope the top dogs die a slow and agonizing death very soon.

Yeah, let's blae the usual scapegoats and use the same old tired excuse, even if it makes no sense to do so whatsoever at all!!!! Great idea....

No, lets look at the facts that are tied directly to the "usual scapegoat". The only person who would use your defense is a thief.  It is not an excuse, it is not bullshit, and it makes perfect sense.  When a business is losing money due to people stealing the rights to play a game gives them the right to formulate a plan to protect their product/investment.  I'm not saying what they are implementing is a great fool-proof plan because it is far from it.  It does not affect/detur the majority of  thieves but rather the people who are honest, paying customers.  But this effort wouldn't be put forth to begin with if there wasn't a major issue with people stealing their product.  So yes, lets feel sorry for the "scapegoat" criminals out there and defend them to the hilt.  great idea... you dunce.

Do you even realize that piracy has NOTHING to do with them charging money for keeping your game ready for download, in fact that's not even a measure against those people? And please be civil, it's taking me quite some willpower not to make you look like a complete idiot right now.

Maybe they (EA) don't want people to lend or let their accounts be inherited by friends who then could (re-)download the games for free. Accounts would be circulated on pirate sites if downloads were unlimited.

I'm sick of EA doing things like this. I recently had an issue with Crysis Warhead where my hard drive crashed a couple of times had to buy a new one, then when i went to install and play it Securom locked me out. It took over two weeks for EA to get me a new serial to play the game, as I had to send a copy of the reciept and case and serial of my purchased game.

Why should legitimate customers be made to jump through hoops. As was mentioned earlier, its like EA dont want you to play their games in the years to come.

I can't believe how they've been ruining their reputation just when they seemed to start making better or at least new games... First the DRM issues, now this. Well, I suppose I shouldn't trust EA even if it seemed they had become better. Luckily I haven't supported them in years in any way.