This kind of nonsense bothers me on so many levels it is difficult to express coherently.
I don't have a single piece of hook software on any of my PCs (three desktops and a laptop), with everything either being bought and paid for or freeware. Shareware is tried and either purchased or uninstalled. I've even been known to switch from free (or ad supported) versions to the paid ones (examples would include Opera v6 and v7, AVG AV) simply in order to support the companies that I feel are worthy of it.
Such copy protection mechanisms not only treat me as a thief and force me to prove that I'm not - contrary to any reasonable justice system - but they also have no appreciable effect on anyone other than the genuine purchaser (for whom they are almost always a negative). The games will still get cracked and will still be available that way for those that care to do so, but I would be prepared to bet that such games will not earn more revenue than they would have done had they been released without such copy protection.
The sad thing is that the industry as a whole seems intent on taking itself down the copy protection blind alley probably right down to the death of gaming on the PC, which bugs me hugely. One sensible voice amongst all the nonsense is Brad Wardell of Stardock - makers of Galactic Civilizations, amongst others - and some might find a recent blog entry of his enlightening in many areas:
http://draginol.joeuser.com/article/...racy_PC_Gaming
For those that can't be bothered to read the whole thing, a couple of statements caught my eye in relation to this thread:
"The reason why we don't put CD copy protection on our games isn't because we're nice guys. We do it because the people who actually buy games don't like to mess with it."
"Blaming piracy is easy. But it hides other underlying causes. When Sins [Of A Solar Empire] popped up as the #1 best selling game at retail a couple weeks ago, a game that has no copy protect whatsoever, that should tell you that piracy is not the primary issue."
It is also worth bearing in mind that Brad's opinions in this area are not simply a recent development. I found the above article, and read it for the first time, whilst looking for a much older article:
http://draginol.joeuser.com/article/209
The other thing that worries me about such activation based mechanisms is what happens when the company selling the game go out of business. Their servers get taken down and ten days later I can no longer play the game?? Doesn't make sense to me and EA, if anyone is listening, I will never buy a version of FIFA (or any other game) that has such a copy protection mechansim built in to it.