[tacos]

Also the reminder that a deterrent doesn't have to be perfect to be effective. Yes, you can easily find a crack for anything. That doesn't mean that the protection didn't serve it's purpose and generate a significant ROI. In the game industry even one day of delay before you hit the warez sites can be worth millions of dollars. With copy protection (including support) costing a tiny fraction of that, it's hard to ignore the option.

And to cut off the "developers spend their time on that crap instead of making the game better" comment before it arrives: frankly, it's a fun and welcomed diversion to code the anti-theft stuff. For every story like this that you read there are hundreds you don't. And the "penalties" imposed by the devs are almost always funny and creative.