Lots of good points here, but I have never bought the "backup copy"
excuse. I have *never* had a CD rendered useless though misuse or loss.
What are you doing with these CD's that has forced you to try and make
a "backup" of it? I mean I take out CD's and toss them onto my desktop
all the time and some of them (GPL for one) don't look factory fresh,
but all of them read perfectly.

I do agree that the Mfg's won't be crawling to our doors trying to sell
software to us due to Steam, Starforce, etc., but neither will they for
the relatively small number of "alternative" purchase locations.

If the latest demo has the protection as reported and the full version
runs as well as the demo, then I have no problem with the software
company at least (in their minds) trying to protect their property.