[quote name='Justin42']Retail box absolutely has Securom protection and all that it entails (activation, overly aggressive install, etc)...[/QUOTE]
I actually find this game's Securom implementation among the least intrusive.
You get 5 installs. If you need to reformat your computer, you can download a program from EA that will de-authorize the game from your computer, freeing up one of the activations. If, for some unknown reason, you happen to blow through all 5, like you happen to have 5 different hard drive failures, I believe you can contact EA and have them give you more installs. One thing I have noticed, though, is if you re-format your system without de-authorizing it, as long as you've not changed your hardware, a subsequent install doesn't eat up an activation.
Finally, once the game is activated, you don't need the disc to play.
It's much, much better than Crysis, which not only requires the disc to play, but that game's disc isn't even readable in all drives.