Is there an anti-piracy method they can't fubar?

I've long been against Draconian anti-piracy measures, as I don't believe in punishing the legitimate users while the pirates just have to wait a few hours for someone to release a nice hassle-free version. Online activation, however, was one I was attracted to. It's simple, it's painless, it's a one-off, it's.. wait, no it's not. Now thanks to those *&*$(£ £*%~#*% at Microsoft and EA ( and of course those lovely people at Securom ) even online activation is going to get a bad name because they're going to make their games reactivate every ten days.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52547

Stupid things like that only encourage people to download cracks, imho.

That's no different than Steam.

Sounds like they've really shot themselves in the foot.

Well, thats their problem - their are other games to get in place of that.

My ideal solution, it's not legal though... would be a encode a serial number from credit card details. Basically, entering your serial code, it would be an easily decryptable version of your main credit card details. It might scare a few of the less cunning away from simply uploading their .exe and serial.

No its not. I've never had to 'reactivate' my games.

Simple, boycott the bastard companies that use it, they'll get the idea. Then do nothing about it and die off.. slowly :)

No I dont think there is.. Not without serious & illegal breach of privacy.

Or buy a console.

Oh yes. That would be a good idea! It would mean the end of all those stupid phishing e-mails I keep getting, because the criminals wouldn't have to lure you to their poorly constructed site to get your credit card details - they can just lift them right off your computer.

It worked for Ubisoft. Such a shame too. I was actually quite looking forward to playing Spore and Mass Effect.