Absolutely true, but I really don't see the alternative. Physical media is obsolete, period. It's unnecessary, expensive, and will vanish completely in the near future. That's reality and, whether you like it or not, there's nothing you can do about it. We need to adapt to a digital world because that's the world we're going to be living in until the zombie/robot/alien/nuclear apocalypse makes us go back to steam technology (and maybe not even then). The best we can do is support those companies which do things well (like Valve) and shun those that do things poorly (like EA). If a day comes when you feel like there is no company that gives you good service, you can also choose to simply stop buying the product. These companies need to make money to survive and if they alienate enough people to impact their revenue stream, then they will change or fail. If people continue to pay for their products despite the restrictions, that's essentially proof that the restrictions themselves are considered an acceptable cost for the services they provide.
That's a bit of an overstatement. Certainly nothing a company does will successfully eliminate piracy and still give the user as positive an experience as they had without those measures. However that doesn't mean that the experience has to be negative overall. There is a middle ground where piracy is effectively fought while the consumer is still happy, even if they're not as happy as they could be.
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