You're pretty sad, if I cared enough to do more than laugh at your paranoia I _might_ get a bit irritated but all I can think of when I read your post(s) is an aspiring Limbaugh wannabe. I wonder if your face is as red as I imagine it to be ;p Your only instance of "harm" is pure user error in one case and idiocy in the other. Your assertion that Steam doesn't support resuming updates is false. Of course your available bandwidth will affect how fast you can pull said updates or other content(including backups), but that is analogous to have a requirement that you have a working CD ROM drive to play back the media you would have purchased for boxed software. Is it the fault of the software vendor that you don't have a working drive (or damaged media)?

You _were_ able to get your content and complaining about having to have a broadband connection to do so is laughable. Which is more onerous to the user, having to maintain install media, all of which have a definable shelf life in years, as well as the drives to read said media or to simply have an IP connection? I know that I have personally lost a hell of a lot more CD ROM's, floppies, and DVD's with content I "owned" than I have ever had or seen reported for people losing access to content via Steam. That's also true of the other major online game retailers like GOG and DirecttoDrive.

Again, please show some evidence of actual harm. You can dislike phoning home, but it is one of the trade offs to address publisher concerns. I can demonstrate the harm of using physical media both to the user themselves and to society as a whole, all you've shown is that you were inconvenienced when you lacked a broadband connection. Are you old enough to remember the alternatives for piracy prevention? DRM now and before that having to keep manuals so you could refer to page so and so and find word number 12 in paragraph 2.

Really, is that the best you can do this morning? You must have skipped breakfast. What actual harm(s) have you or anyone else experienced from using Steam? Quick, point out all of the complaints of Valve abusing their customer...sadly (for you) despite the millions of Steam users you can't find them. You can find complaints about some of the of patches and software quality they have put out but that isn't an indication of their (in your eyes) plot to "screw everyone". BTW, in your paranoid version of the universe what is Steam's motivation for abusing their customers? I mean, they are already one of the most successful online software distributions companies on the planet. Why would they want to do something to jeopardize that?

So you were happy with the rootkit that SOE installed because you could return the software (though the rootkit would remain) but you're unhappy with Steam. Why is it that you believe that the California law wouldn't apply to Steam purchases? The licenses for the games are identical to the boxed versions... This is nothing more than a red herring, you can return games under Steam and you have no more and no fewer rights as a software licensee than you would have if you purchased a boxed copy.

Next time try harder to be insulting, you might actually pull it of but you seem to lack the imagination. I have to ask, when your phone is in standalone mode do you call yourself? While the device (iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc) might have functions that it can be used for when it's not connected to its network it most certainly cannot be used as a phone. The analogy is appropriate here since its another piece of technology that not only requires a network connection it requires one from a specific provider or one that has an agreement with your specific provider, as opposed to a generic IP connection that Steam needs.

Really? Want to point out a rootkit or user level monitoring software that Steam has installed? How about some evidence? Sony and others (hence the question about other software vendors) have done this exactly, but Steam does not.

Please, hold the paranoia. Do you trust any of your software vendors? Really? Do you worry about the phone company (VOIP or traditional POTS) listening to your calls or perhaps the fact that your phone can't operate in standalone mode? IMO Valve has found a happy medium between user concerns and publisher concerns. Both groups have legitimate areas to worry about as well as less legitimate ones but Valve hasn't installed spy ware (AFAIK) for any publisher. You can play your games without having to connect to Steam, I have a laptop that seldom if ever actually connects to the service and its saved huge amounts of natural resources by being one of (if not the) most popular platforms for buying games without boxes and packaging materials.

As soon as the rabid "It's still DRM" crowd either
a) Get's over their kneejerk reaction
b) Get's ignored since they don't buy games anyway
c) Get's distracted by the next Sony DRM debacle

people will realize that this is exactly what the industry needs. MMO's don't have (much) of a piracy problem, but game developers that want to just sell software need help. DRM has failed not because the concept is flawed, it's not, but because the implementations have been silly. The idea that you can create a procedure and have it work without change forever is simply a waste of money. I can already think of several methods of lying to this kind of system, but Steam makes things harder just by combining a form of file check along with a log on to a remote server. To "lie" you will have to convince Steam that are a registered user, have permission to run the game you want to pirate, and your file(s) matches the CRC or other check they do. Once someone figures that out, or even _gasp_ before, they can add another check (or set of checks) to make things more difficult.

Many imperfect walls > 1 (supposedly) perfect one