Yeah, things would go south very quickly if there were too many F*** smilies out there.

The whole permanent internet connection thing is offensive and an epic fail in terms of copyright. While I'd originally thought that this might be a harder one for the script kiddies to crack, there's been no indication of that being the case. Instead, they're either DDOSing the servers whenever a game comes out or just issuing cracks within days. Not a single thing has been accomplished to cut piracy.

You wanna cut piracy? Cut prices. 

Anyway, the good news is that Ubi is already quietly backing off from this absurd anti-piracy effort. R.U.S.E. doesn't use it, and the company "retains the right" to not use it when they want with other titles. To me that suggests a quiet death and burial a few months down the line.

DLC and achievements won't stop piracy. Once the publishers do what I expect them to do - release $60 games that have maybe two hours of content then charge $10 a pop for months for "optional" DLC to complete the game - piracy will spike again and the indie movement will become the mainstream.

Nothing will stop piracy. Just like nothing will stop shoplifting. There will always be piracy. To repeat the refrain, treating legitimate customers like criminals is arguably the worst way to combat it.

Both sides spout theories and statistics that can't be proven, like the claim that those who pirate were never going to buy anyway, or that Game X or Y suffered a Z% piracy rate, which ate into revenues W much. Ubi is hurting itself and its image with this scheme, just as publishers that depended on StarForce did. Sadly, though, the people who'll actually refuse to buy because they're offended by some anti-piracy measure is incredibly small. And the publishers know it, so they go ahead with these draconian systems that cost money and don't work because for some misguided reason, they're convinced that it's the way to go.