okay well in that case I've got nothing except that it is poorly worded on CD Projekt's part :)
He did amend his statement after you quoted him. :)

A. See my edit.
B. So? I was going to spend $120+ on the collector's edition. Stick me with DRM & force me to download the game instead of getting a disc version? Don't be surprised if you don't get my money.

Piracy happens to all games, unfortunately.

The usual piracy excuses hold no water with TW2, and yet people will still pirate. Funny how you mention CD Projeckt "herding" customers to their service, and then mention Valve as a good example further down, when Steam/Steamworks is ALL about increasing their market share of DD.

Because that is clearly the worst DRM we have ever seen in THE HISTORY OF THE WORLDS!!!

It is a bit disappointing that they're using such a harsh DRM-scheme after having spoken against DRM so many times.

What's especially annoying to me is that the disc version does not contain the entire game, but needs to download an extra 50 MB during install in order to function. That's _very_ close to what I consider unacceptable.

what confuses me about this whole thing, is why do it at all? If there is an unprotected version available from GOG, what's the point in protecting the rest? It's not like it is a physical product and at least the pirates couldn't get their hands on the protected ones. One copy goes rogue from GOG, and the whole thing is pointless.

publisher != developer, CD Projekt has limited to no control over how the publishers distribute the game outside of GOG.

We don't know that. Publisher-developer deals are not all the same.

And CD Projekt obviously retain quite a lot of rights here, since they're the online publisher and can sell it DRM-free in the first place.

I thought of this too. Solution: they do it because they've always done it and are so inflexible that they can't see the obvious. Sadly not entirely unreasonable.
That's 99.99% of the time when the publisher and developer are two different companies. (Yes that statistic is made up, but probably not inaccurate)
That was part of the deal they made with the other two publishers, but by and large they can't tell the publisher how to distribute the publishers version over the publisher's distribution channels.

To me, it comes off as very specifically worded, particularly because of the "ability to play on up to five computers at once" at the end.

Something they said has to give. As they have described it (and all suggestions I've seen) is simply impossible to achieve.

Either there is an internet connection required outside of installation or you don't have unlimited installations.

Claiming "activation is an installation procedure" falls under the second. In this case, any de-activated installations are not installations because they aren't fully installed. On the flip side, you would be able to uninstall a de-activated one, which means it has to be installed, thus activating it isn't part of the installation and then it falls under the first :P

something can be specifically and yet still poorly worded.

Not really.

This is not a typical publisher deal where the publisher pays the developer to make the game. In those cases, the publisher has all the control. But this is CD Projekt making a game with their own money, and then getting third party publishers to distribute it in markets they can't otherwise reach (retail only). A very different type of deal.

And yes, they can tell the publisher what DRM to use. This happens relatively often with these kinds of distribution deals. TrackMania-dev Nadeo were the ones who decided their game would use StarForce, for instance. Not any of the publishers. Just one example.

Sure, and if it runs, you will delete this cracked version and immediately buy a legal one (or two because money obviously does not matter, since you would buy two times almost the same thing). Just out of curiosity: How long do you need to test a cracked version in order to know that it runs on your system?

How many endings to get the T-Shirt? 16? He needs to play it that many times then to make sure it's absolutely worth his money.

Very true.

On another note, just as I lost my internet connection, I thought of a way they can actually achieve what they are claiming.

5 authentication dongles provided with the game. No internet connection required, doesn't prevent installation and limits to 5 instances being started.