He's referring to the fact that Valve can disable your account and such.
Still. Really dude? Really?
At least if they go under they'll release all the games anyways...
Can you blame something for being human?

if i bought a game on steam would i be able to keep the digital copy on my hdd and play it when i'm not connected to the interent? i travel alot and dont always have a connection to the internet, which is why gog kicks ass cuz the game is mine to keep without any annoying hoops to jump through.

The offline mode seems to be fairly patchy, some people have no trouble at all and others pretty much can't use the offline mode at all. I think the client demands an update after a few weeks offline though

i'll definitely shy away from steam then

Enough with the renting bullshit already.

I didn't bring it up, other people made mention of it.
I listed some services and then people had to go "oh well, why didn't you bring up steam?"
I'm done talking about it, unless you ask me about it.

thats my only option currently, and i'm not looking to "rent" anything, eventually i might buy a cd/dvd drive, but that kinda defeats the purpose of my netbook....which is ultra-portability, i have enough other crap to carry around with me everywhere i go. m4 rifle, 45lb body armor, kevlar helmet, and a HUGE rucksack full of army junk that i never use but am required to have with me at all times, and i'm actually limited on how much personal stuff i can bring with me, so lugging around the external drive might not seem like that big of a deal but add 100+lbs to that which i'm required to drag onto, off of, and around everywhere i go......no thanks.

Then don't buy games. As you'll be "renting" games whether you buy them from GOG, D2D, Impulse, Steam, GamersGate, Greenhouse, any number of the smaller DD sites or retail.

Still true for retail. The only difference is that it's almost impossible to enforce it. Hence why they really start using DRM. Don't believe that piracy excuse; that's just a smokescreen.

I love the idea of this soldier in the Afghani dessert ,or somewhere else training, having a little free time and playing Fallout 2. He could be playing Ghost Recon with a real assault rifle right beside him. That is so cool.

Maybe so, but there is definitely a line you have to draw when you want to protect your work and letting people play it without feeling like they're criminals. DRM may not have been the right answer, but we need happy, friendly, cuddly DRM designed by smart people who know what it's like to be wronged by this stuff.

What's true for retail? Stealing your game collection? How exactly? I buy a DRM-less copy of Action Game X, which has no mandatory online connection. I can install, uninstall, mod, etc, the game to my HEARTS content, even if I was CONVICTED of fraud against the publisher.

You may pay for your DRM free license to a game, but you still don't own it. The IP holder does. Technically, unless the IP holder specifically gives you permission, you can't sell your license to play the game to a third party -- of course, like any number of silly little laws, such as "jay walking" such a DRM free license can't be enforced. Still, like those laws, it doesn't change the legality of the IP owners rights. It also doesn't change the all important fact that you do not own that game at all.
Thus, you're still basically renting your game from an IP holder who is unable or unwilling to enforce the terms of the licensing agreement they ask you to accept when you install the game.

Not technically true, with GOG you can dowload all your installs to discs or just keep them on your hard drive. No need to redownload them, and the GOG team can't touch those files once they are off their server.
I just had to correct that, but otherwise I am one of the few people around here who doesn't have a problem with steam. Though maybe I'm just lucky.