I still think that the Steam platform is the golden standard for DRM. The Assassin's Creed 2 DRM still comes from the old-school plan of restricting the legitimate needs of cash-paying customers, which makes the cracked version superior to the original. Steam, on the other hand, gives me <i>more</i> features rather than <i>less</i>: I can install the game on multiple machines, or the same machine multiple times, even if I lose the hard copy. It saves me a trip to the store, which was half the reason I pirated games back in college. I can pre-load the game and play it literally the second it comes out without having to camp outside a Fry's two hours away. They're by no means essential features and I rarely use any of them, but that whole thing about making sure your copy is legitimate is a hell of a lot easier to swallow when it's sold as the price of a new feature.<p>(obligatory: <a href="http://xkcd.com/488/" rel="nofollow">http://xkcd.com/488/</a> )