good DRM doesn't "intentionally cripple" products. Why would anyone support a campaign that starts off by spreading such silly claims. That is the simple purpo

good DRM doesn't "intentionally cripple" products. Why would anyone support a campaign that starts off by spreading such silly claims. That is the simple purpose of DRM. A digital file can be copied easily. DRM or any type of copy-protection introduces complexity to reduce this basic functionality. Reduced functionality makes a product less useful to the user. You could also say that lower cost versions of Windows 7 are crippled from the user's perspective. Parts of the OS are disabled so Microsoft can sell multiple editions at different price points. Functionality that exists is purposely reduced (crippled). To use your example of Steam: it still disallows certain types of copying. It provides additional functionality, but Steam without DRM would be more useful to the end user. I could create my own offline back up copies and share copies with people not on Steam, etc. Obviously, this might be considered bad behavior for economic/ethical reasons but the functionality provided to the user is strictly reduced by the DRM. That is the point. Steam isn't useful because of DRM, Steam is useful in spite of DRM.