Steam's legal footing looks pretty good to me. IANAL, but neither are you, and at least I was aware of recent case law movement on this issue. Why you weren't is puzzling, considering that it's been covered pretty extensively and recently here.
The reason is because of banal, annoying comments like this that reek of self-righteousness that caused me to walk away from Slashdot for awhile. So, in short... stuff off.
BTW: Steam still has MAJOR faults that nobody really mentions on gaming sites very often such as server lists not populating and authentication problems as well as that little banned issue they ran into a while back with Modern Warfare, so all of these services are really a pain in the ass when it comes down to it.
No joke. Add the random disconnects, the painfully slow server response times, inability to better choose your server, PITA local server setup, etc. Steam isn't perfect, but at least it isn't the permanent connection DRM that Ubisoft is using on Assassin's Creed 2
I rather doubt that your statements are accurate. In a true capitalist economy (which is what we are talking about here) people would be free of government interference and the government would only fulfill three roles, police (to protect against criminals), military (to protect against foreign invasion, and courts (to settle disputes using objectively defined laws). People that have the ability and desire to produce something would be free to do so without interference from the government (taxes, restrictive regulations, etc).
The freedom from government handouts could initially make it appear as though the standard of living was reduced, but once people realize that there is no handout coming then they are free to choose their path, to starve (which is against the human desire for life) or to apply their abilities to the acquisition of the necessities of life through work.
In truth, it is the opposite of your statement that is true. The farther you get from capitalism the more corruption and monopolies you see. China is a great example of this. They are far from a free economy, but is rife with corruption and state run monopolies are the norm.
Is your job running? You'd better go catch it!
