Some time ago I posted on my great annoyance with the new DRM software trickery introduced by UbiSoft in all of their games including Assasins Creed II and now The Settler VII... Here are some excellent examples of why we as paying(!!) customers should collectively boycot UbiSoft and not accept this kind of DRM abuse:
"Ubisoft's Settlers 7 servers have been causing problems for over a week for users worldwide, and Australian gamers are hardly able to connect at all. 'The problem reportedly strikes after the game has already confirmed an active Internet connection, and prevents the user from playing even the single-player campaign, returning the error "server not available." But they are available, because other people are logged into them and merrily playing away."
- http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/04/03/1638240/Ubisoft-DRM-Causing-More-Problems
- http://games.on.net/article/8521/Australian_gamers_unable_to_play_Settlers_7_due_to_DRM_woes
"If you get disconnected while playing, you're booted out of the game. All your progress since the last checkpoint or savegame is lost, and your only options are to quit to Windows or wait until you're reconnected."
- http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/02/18/0719256/Ubisofts-Constant-Net-Connection-DRM-Confirmed
- http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/03/08/004219/Ubisofts-Authentication-Servers-Go-Down
- http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/07/ubisoft-drm-authentification-server-is-down-assassins-creed-2/
And lastly... Not sure if this one is actually true, but I hope it is. :)
"Though Ubisoft won't yet admit it, Skid-Row managed to crack the new DRM less than a day after it was first released."