Namur: So I should forget about what they actually did, and just complain about DRM in general? Got it :p. Seriously, that is why I say we should praise them. They didn't have to do that, but they did. And that is something to be acknowledged.
And people who download games from the internet don't have to swap CDs or enter serial numbers (you can copy-paste those from the .nfo :p). They also don't have to waste money on gas (or, you know, the game itself) when they initially buy it. Hell, if we are going to rate the merit of a service on how much easier it is to pirate, feth GoG. Why should we buy Freespace here when we can just grab the FSO Installer (something we would probably all use anyway) and let that download. Those who don't pay don't need to extract any files or deal with reading a readme file on how to install something. Same with Duke3d. Most torrent sites have it all eDuke'd up and ready to go, but we need to extract a few executables if we want to use the source port.
So yeah, I would prefer to not take everything out of context (although, if you do take everything out of context, EA are heroes for giving us a less limited method of DRM. See, without context, you can't give them the finger for making us deal with this DRM in the first place :p). Context is important. Hell, if they completely removed the DRM from Madden 2020: Madden Harder but didn't even remove MEPC's activation limits, people (including myself) would bitch about that.
As for Phoenix: You are right, there have been DRM-less games since the start. But you are wrong about all "bad" DRMs going away, unless your metric is whether or not they are still around. I sure as hell find having to swap discs (especially since I only bothered to put in one dvd drive in my current computer) to be a particularly limiting and annoying DRM. Many times I have lost the willpower to play a different game, just because I don't feel like having to open a box.
I sure as hell find having to enter serial numbers (especially since so few publishers understand that an O and a 0, and an l and a 1 can look very similar if you use a bad font...) every time I want to install a game. I fear uninstalling Neverwinter Nights because it has three keys (does that mean I should firebomb BIoware and Atari? :p). Yet pretty much every release (except, shockingly, the activation models. Usually) still has those bits of DRM.
Hell, a lot of people (say they) don't want to connect to the internet once a month. Yet Steam is still going strong. And people were vehemently opposed to that when it first came out (I just saw it as a way to trick Valve into thinking I owned the entire first generation of Half-Life games :p).
But I know, you are going to argue "but those aren't annoying or limiting" or "those don't cause anywhere near as many problems". All I have to say is, go to one of the cess pools of the gaming community, and you will see at least one or two morons who feed their manuals to their dogs or lose discs. If we are to assume that the most vocal are the majority (judging by your argument that being vehemently anti-DRM is the majority :p), at last a large portion of gamers are too stupid to take care of what they buy. So disc-checks and serial numbers are a pretty big concern. Hell, if we are to really believe all the rumors, most CD-Checks lower your performance. So a lot of tweak-guides suggest finding and using a no-cd crack. And things like Steam and Impulse are attempting to get rid of that.
So yeah, I think we have a long history of people getting used to DRM. Sure the more draconian (ie. the ones where the people who couldn't bypass it started horrifying rumors. See Starforce (which I disliked almost as much as this variation of Securom) :p) methods get phased out, and it looks like the limited activations model is going to be phased out. But online activation itself is here to stay. Even GoG is "guilty" of promoting it by encouraging people to embrace digital distribution (sure they don't have an activation in the truest sense of the word, but they are still showing people that a box and a manual are not needed).
Because digital distribution for any modern game IS DRM if done right. Everyone praises Stardock, but they essentially are doing exactly what you guyy are accusing EA of doing with The SIms 3. Sure there is no DRM to play the game, but if you want the patches, you are pretty much forced to use Impulse (I can only find the first one or two patches for the core game on Fileplanet and what not, let alone patches for Dark Avatar and Twilight of the Arnor), So you still have to activate your copy and tie your key to an account.. Well, the last part may not be fully there yet, but it is coming.
And here is a negotiation tip for you (since we are both clearly experts of the art :p): Always propose an alternative that both parties can live with. If all you do is pout and scream that you want ice cream, you are going to have to eat all your (yummy) vegetables. If you propose a compromise, you might get a bit of ice cream after only half of your (delicious) Brussels sprouts. There is clearly a reason that publishers want DRM of some form (whether or not that is a valid reason isn't really relevant), so they are going to use DRM of some form. Even Stardock is pushing Impulse and that GOO thing these days.