While it may be the case that these inherently online services have our personal information, the original commentor's post voices a viable concern. Why should I be forced to give *another* online outfit my personal information just so that I can play a game:

1. (1) that I purchased from a brick-and-mortar store;
2. (2) that either has no online component or where I do not plan to use any such component; and
3. (3) where the requirement that I provide my personal information to such an online outfit is not clear until *after* I have opened the package and tried to install the software from the CD or DVD that I hold in my hot little hands and *after* I have eliminated my ability to return the game to the store for a refund!

I should be free to choose with whom I share my personal information *before* being committed to providing that information or being out the money I paid for the game. That is a dichotomy which should not exist. That said, now that I have been bitten by the infernal catch-22 once, I am closely scrutinizing every single game that I consider buying and if I see "Steam" or "Valve" anywhere on the writing on the outside of the box it goes back on the shelf. I may be disappointed, but "Steam" is *not* getting any of my business and no retail establishment will benefit from receiving any money from me for any games infected with the "Steam" requirement.

Except that your argument proves the very statement you tried to refute. Just because supply and demand can be manipulated artificially does not mean that the laws of supply and demand do not control the price. Monopolies of every ilk, governmental and business, can limit the supply of a resource which will impact the price for any given level of demand. Thus, whether manipulated artificially or limited naturally, the laws of supply and demand control the price of oil.

Except that he didn't "abolish" any program or stop funding research. The Congress of the United States passed an omnibus budget reconciliation bill, and one of the provisions of that bill shut down the federal corporation which performed the research; President Reagan signed that bill into law. Congress is free at any time to restart such research or fund any private research efforts.