I am sorry to say so, but you did not understand what I meant at all...

My point was very simple, and did not require any long explanation, but you do need to understand that in a corporate board room logic and common sense do not always apply. The steps, as clearly as I can make them, are as follows:

1 - Software corps uses DRM for many reasons, piracy is not really one of them (we know DRM do not stop piracy - only day 1 piracy in some cases)
2 - Software corps blames piracy for the inclusion of DRM
3 - Remove/stop piracy and software corps can no longer use this excuse
4 - Continue with piracy, and you legitimatise the use of DRM, and the escalation of DRM methodologies (as this then becomes a "war")

Piracy does not help DRM free, in fact it hinders it (goes to point 4). If you want to fight for DRM free you need to stop piracy (point 3). The only thing piracy is good for is instant convenience for yourself - it does not help in the long run as it is just perpetuating the existing system (and getting software for free).

The used market for games that are still on both the primary physical and digital markets is a bit pointless in most cases and in some cases even morally problematic (GameStop's policies for instance). For the consumer, the savings generated are rarely substantial enough to warrant buying used over new.

Used games come into their own when the physical version is out of print, and especially so when the digital version also has to be pulled for whatever reason. This becomes particularly problematic when the physical version is also bound to online DRM. For example, acquiring a legal copy of 007 Legends, Speedball 2 Tournament or Darkspore, will get increasingly difficult until it eventually disappears from existence.

I know the digital warriors out there advocate piracy to keep these games in circulation - the hypocrisy of this suggestion should be fairly obvious, given that it's usually the same people that claim that used games harm developers. This of course also ignores the fact that you're essentially dependent on piracy groups offering the game for download.

Basically, the forced use of Steam, UPlay and Origin on physical copies is the gaming equivalent of book burnings - it's deliberately designed to remove games as quickly as possible from circulation. And given this, it's not a practice I support.

Well, as I see it, these services are actually capable of keeping the games in circulation perpetually, but you can just not re-sell the games anymore. There is no "book-burning" involved, as this removes the book completely from circulation, here the "books" are available for an theoretical eternity. You just need to buy new copies every single time. I don't think that analogy works at all for digital distribution.

The only thing you can blame for removing things out of circulation is licensing, which is a different issue. But considering if licensing was sorted for that 007 racing game for a couple of years back - it can be sold the day after again, in the exact same condition. So it is a matter of legislation and licensing more than the nature of digital distribution and services.

(gOg suffers from the exactly same problem, by the way)

Oh you don't know how much we are laughing at this right now. :D

A theoretical eternity, not a practical one. All Steam accounts will be lost eventually - if not by the disinterest or death of the owners, then by the shut-down of Steam itself (and Steam will eventually go under - be it through Valve's bankruptcy or loss of interest. No online service ever lasts forever).

Nope.

Licensing is just one of many reasons why a game is pulled from circulation. A publisher may pull a predecessor version to sell a successor version, even though the predecessor version may present certain advantages or differences that are still valued. A developer may pull a game out of sheer emotional spite. A developer might have a dispute with the platform operator. The developer may cease to exist, not leaving anyone to take over the IP (which is likely to happen with a lot of the indie developers).

And I suspect you're limiting your definition of "licensing" to brands and the like. Licensing problems can go way beyond the inclusion of real-life cars, movie licences and football teams. A licence to use certain music may expire. There may be disputes on the use of certain libraries, middleware or patches.

Digital isn't the archive of perpetuity that you think it is. Licences to legally distribute games are a fickle thing to keep going.

Indeed - it's an inherent problem with digital distribution. But at least with GOG, if push comes to shove, we can still resort to the abandonware option, even if it is illegal and absolutely the least desirable option, and the problems with conservation still remain.

Right because people were flocking to retail stores to buy PC games right? PC game physical copies became more and more rare to the point the only place to find anything was stuff like ebay and craigslist. You know who 'forced' stuff like Steam and others? The consumer did because they choose to buy there vs. having a physical copy of a game.

But I am willing to bet that it will last longer than a physical disk... heck, I have games on Steam now for longer than what the life-span of many of my discs actually where... and not a single game there is scratched, and I have all the games still as when I bought them. I can not say the same about my physical collection, many of those games are lost now.

Licensing is licensing. I did not limit anything...

but still, the same apply to physical, as the re-sale is limited to the lifetime of the disks... digital do not have this limitation.

Same with Steam games :)

(Steams DRM is easily cracked....)

If your games are scratched, lost, broken or whatever, that's your problem. Don't force your inadequacies upon the rest of us. Those of us who look after our games still have them all working. In 20 years of PC and PS1 gaming, just one of my CDs has died - something which I can clearly attribute to my own carelessness (leaving an unboxed CD out in direct sunshine is not exactly the cleverest thing to do...)

Disk scratched = my fault
DRM server gone = not my fault

You can't resell digital at all, so your point is...pointless.

Resale is certainly limited to the lifetime of the disks, which is the case with any product. Digital is there just in case a physical product should go "extinct", although digital itself is not exactly a 100% reliable alternative.

Sure...every Tom, Dick and Harry can just pull up a disassembler or hex editor and scrape away that DRM. It's a piece of cake.

Ooooooooh, you mean you can get someone else to crack it for you. That's different.

Does not change the fact that a disk have a limited time-span, digital have a theoretical eternal time-span (up to and including the point the sun goes super-nova....). also not to mention that there is no wear and tear on digital - yes if you keep the disk airtights and never use them they last a long time. I use my steam library daily, and it have survived several moves, including relocation of country. Without any game getting accidentally broken!

These days I tend to think about it the other way around...

Anyway - if you want conservation - digital is the way to go. Nothing in this world is 100% reliable, but the interwebs at the moment has proven more reliable to me than physical disks. Your mileage may wary, off course, but for me it works perfectly and more reliably.

Not going there... but I guess you meant that every tom, dick harry was going to upload gOg games to Abandonware sites also...

1- yes (yes)
2- yes
3- no, this is an illusion, fantasy. its a) technically not possible (,since:) b) term "piracy" applies to anything the owner of copyright can consider to be against the license. They are bending light and you will be fighting against windmills to their pleasure. See (1) of your own post.
When you rich double-sided legally bounding agreement with copyright owner: to remove drm, when illegal sharing drops below some %, then this claim would work. You must implement it as a law however, otherwise it will be of only local impact.

4- no, continuing with sharing has no impact on DRM. Sharing is not piracy, piracy is taking possession of something you have no right to use (per license/per local law). If you are sharing something with another party and each of you have the license, you condemn no piracy.
What you might do, is break the terms of use of particular product, if TOS explicitly state that - however so long there is no difference in game files//cheats/advantages/hacking server//system/balance manipulation, but just removal of drm or any other measure to make the title run better on your hardware, there is no breakage of ToS by using this version.

Some games I bought - I never downloaded, but I got versions from the filesharing: they are perfectly identical, sans having no DRM. From NoCD, because the game refuses to run (Mercedes Benz World Racing for example), to Steam-only single player. I have the license, there is no clause in license agreement that playing without drm is illegal. Its not piracy, but sharing here - the difference is solely in purchasing the license.
This is no different from GOG by the way from technical perspective. GOG purchases the right to sell (distributor license) and sells licenses+content without DRM. I purchase license, and get content without DRM.
From political and security perspective, GOG is far better however, because the developer and/or copyright holder can quantitatively confirm the license sells of drm-free titles (thus damaging pro-drm lobby reputation) and user is sure for his binary copy to have no security issue. This is why I put GOG (or similar drm-free shop) purchase as top priority.

Another example - Quake 3 and windows from 7 up (even if I don't use it, it still comes with hardware sometimes): you can get a binary anywhere. Of course, you better get it from official sources - keyword security risks - but its freely available. The difference is only in the key - if you have the key, you are legal user. If not - you are not.

" Piracy does not help DRM free, in fact it hinders it (goes to point 4)."
I strongly disagree with point 4 and logic behind this conclusion. You confuse sharing and piracy, because your definition of piracy includes sharing. Piracy is an illegal possession, where sharing is an exchange without taking legality or non-legality in account.

Sharing helps DRM-free. I have no idea why you keep overlooking this. Without sharing, even if I buy license for drm'ed title, I can get no binaries without drm. I also have never do it out of "convenience" (?) - its far more convenient to download binary from trusted verified official source, but sometimes the upstream version is by far more problematic and restricting - both caused by drm, that you need drm-free (cracked) version to enjoy your legally purchased product.

This is not correct.
a) Disk
When buying such a product, you buy the right to use. You don't buy disk media. This is clearly stated in the license. If you buy a bulk of blank disks, you indeed by the media only since no license agreement is supplied with it (means, you can even start reverse-engineering its plastic in order to start own production - only patent laws may prevent this).

The disk is used only as a planned obsolescence. This is verifiable, because some DRM mechanisms will explicitly state that "Disk is too scratched, hence I will not allow you to play". This claim is a violation of license.

Example: You purchase a book, you tear few pages, a coping device claims "it is illegal to copy this pages" and your book "refuses to open, because few pages are torn". This is illegal.
Correct:: you can copy any pages, so long you purchased the rights (license) to this book (when you bought it) and abide by them, which mostly means restricting distribution of said pages among those without license.

b) DRMshop
Just an example of Linux Game Publishing, that used an online DRM.
It went dark, no titles are playable anymore.

You probably going to argue here, but hence customers purchased the license already, they can download drm-free versions and play them.

My friend once gave me a physical copy of Splinter Cell Pandora, and my CD drive scratched it. Carelessness, huh?

Pretty much this.

Anyone remember Spore?

Game was announced to be released with SecurROM DRM. Internet users rioted, organized a massive piracy operation against it in protest. They didn't want intrusive DRM and wanted to make an example of Spore if developers continued to make games with it.

To this day, Spore remains the most pirated game in history. By all accounts, the organization was a success.

Too bad it didn't change anything though. In fact, one could argue it made it all worse

Now, 7 years later, DRM is so common that game developers no longer put their full games on disks, like what we see here. Always-online, Steamworks reliance, and every major publisher has their own digital storefront and downloader. It's actually expected these days.

Piracy never works. The big companies don't listen to pirates, they use pirates as an excuse to change the gaming landscape and, over time, people begin to accept it. Pirates are the great red herring of the digital landscape; the boogeyman that people in suits use to push their agendas in board rooms.

We'll never see another Spore, and Wil Wright has forever left the game industry. But Origin sure isn't going anywhere.

Silly people. How can they make such fuzz about a harmless disk check securom... *sigh* Except it was not:

Spore uses a modified version of the controversial digital rights management (DRM) software SecuROM as copy protection,[43][44][45][46] which requires authentication upon installation and when online access is used.[47] This system was announced after the originally planned system met opposition from the public, as it would have required authentication every ten days.[48] Additionally, EA released the game under a policy by which the product key of an individual copy of the game would only be authenticated on up to three computers.[49] In response to customer complaints, this limit was raised to five computers.[50] After the activation limit has been depleted, EA Customer Service will consider further activations on a case-by-case basis.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_%282008_video_game%29#DRM_controversy

Back then it was kind of a big deal. And to say it did not archived anything... How many games with limited activation get released yearly?

edit: EA even went so far that their next generation of retail releases Like Dragon Age & Mass Effect 2 where traditional offline releases.