And what it really feels like is that, well, “We’re going to have to treat all PC gamers like filthy thieves.”

The first few times you hear some sort of slur like that, it just rolls off. But after years of being hit with it over and over again, it starts to sting. Especially when the local merchants aren’t just looking at your sidewise and muttering about Gypsies, but putting up strong bars on their windows, requiring all customers to leave their bags at the door, and eventually frisking everyone who leaves the store to make sure they’re not walking out with anything.

Regardless of the practical impact of one DRM scheme or another, that’s what really gets to people: the presumption of guilt.

That’s why even people like Certis are coming out and saying “You know what? Enough’s enough, I’m not going to do business with you any more” at this point—because it’s just not cool when you walk into McDonald’s and they slap a pair of handcuffs on you for the duration of your stay, “just in case”. That’s the kind of thing you’d never accept even if the food was individually cooked by the head chef of an amazing restaurant—and all we’re talking about here is mass-market drivel.