snippetz of ridicule: Valve believes it's okay to disallow you to install a game physically sitting in your optical drive

... Which, needless to say, you have just paid your own money for in a naive belief that the mechanics of capitalism work the way they have always been, i.e. you pay a sum of money you own equal to the market value of the product in order to in exhcange claim ownership of the said product. And remember, we are talking about a product as in an item, in a final shape or form here. Imagine that you have just bought a shiny new BMW. But when you turn the ignition key or what the fuck have you, instead of the speedo or the rev counter, a message pops up on your dashboard. "This 3 Series cannot be used yet because it has not yet been released". Now, let us make something perfectly clear here. A computer game is not service. The means by which this product is provided to you, however, is. And I've got a serious problem with how these products are being provided these days.

Can somebody please explain the reasoning behind a product being made available in stone shops before the time it can actually be used?

Valve's Steam is a service. And, despite being a lot more consumer-tolerant than the new Origin of Electronic Arts which is, plainly, spy/malware, a severely flawed, fascist and obtrusive one of those, too. For one, in order to be able to do anything with the product you have just bought, let alone merely start using it, you must have an Internet connection. Whether it is a one-off or not is a point completely irrelevant. Even if you look at the relationship of the two and try coming up with an analogy, it's far from "you will unable to use this piece of furniture because your flat is not shaped appropriately". It's much more like "you cannot use this TV set because your washing machine doesn't have a dryer". One doesn't practically -- or in any other manner -- need the other, it's just some dick's idea of how to protect his intellectual property, that's all it is.

Why does Ubisoft's always-online requirement spark an outrage while there is grave silence over SteamWorks DRM? What exactly is the difference between the two?

And it's mind-boggling just how far is the dick willing to go, never mind it simply doesn't only have the effect he desires, it encourages people to find means to circumvent these "protections" and, along the way, get to the dick's intellectual property without rewarding the dick with the utilities he, although questionably, deserves. But all the more mind-bogglingly, there are smaller dicks behind this big one who, blinded by whatever it is that's on offer, go -- on top of coping with these preposterous and unfair practices -- defending him. Even if it means throwing illogical, unsupported arguments and turning against their own.

How exactly is it legal for the stone shop to take customer's monies for a product fully controlled by a 3rd party service to the terms and conditions of which the customer has not agreed before the transaction has been made and which are not explained in full on any attachments to the physical product itself?

So let us ask. What is actually on offer? Is this the future of how products will be made available to people? If so, it is our understanding that as the markets evolve, companies should adapt to this process by bringing products and services that provide more convenience and benefits. So where is the convenience and where are the benefits of this manadatory Internet connection, must of having an account with an unverified service provider completely unrelated to either the developer or the publisher of the product, endless piles of crapware, malware and spyware that the user must involuntarily keep? How does it improve my experience of using the product that I have bought -- and have in fact been mislead to believe I was claiming ownership of -- solely and specifically for this experience?

Although everything I've just said may not be explicitly aimed at Valve and Steam, it's them who have triggered this article. It is therefore mainly them I'm sending a message I've sent to Ubisoft some weeks ago. I've never wanted anything for free. But unless you provide me with products I can install whenever I see fit, wherever I see fit, how many times I see fit, manage them however I see fit, in other words, own the products I am paying to own, Fuck You. And I'd prefer it's a very scabby and a very syphilitic mule that'll do the fucking.