[quote name='SumDumRetard']Except it's a permanent license that allows you to do what you want with it, since you know, you paid for it.[/quote]
Um, no. While most software licenses are of infinite length, they most certainly do
not allow you to do whatever you want with it.
All this does is keep good buyers aware and force them into piracy,
They're not forcing you to do anything. Aside from just installing the game and playing it with the copy protection, you also have the option of doing the right thing (as if), and opting to not buy/install the game, if you know that you won't abide by the license agreement.
And by the way, what problems have you had with SecuROM? Seriously, like half the PC games on the market today use it. It's not exactly a rare, super-hardcore system or anything.
This keeps good gamers who don't use the internet on a frequent basis away,
There aren't that many gamers with PCs that could run this that don't have reliable internet connections. And therein lies another form of copy protection: if they don't have internet, then they're going to have a hard time downloading a pirated copy of the game, aren't they?
If I purchase a game I can do whatever the hell I want with it,
No, you can't. Have you ever even glanced at an End-User License Agreement? When you buy a game at a store, you're not really buying the game; you're buying a
license to
use the software (and the licenses always include provisions stating that you must not modify the game data/executable, etc; furthermore, you're usually not allowed to duplicate the game media, even as a personal backup). And legally, you must either abide by the agreement, or not install the software.
Anyway, it's all a moot point now, as far as Mass Effect goes; they've removed the every-10-days check, in light of all the bitching they've been hearing. It still uses standard SecuROM, of course, but now the game only does an online authentication when the game updates, or when you download additional content for it.