Digital Rights Management (DRM) gimmicks are old news. Since the earliest games, publishers have been inventing ways to keep people from making illegal copies. And they’ve been failing at it for just as long.

Recently, 2K Games announced that they were reducing the level of DRM on the upcoming Bioshock 2. It appears that originally the game was limited to five installs.

The new requirements merely call for the game to be connected to the internet during install so that 2K can check to make sure it’s a genuine copy. The reduction is apparently a response to fan outrage over the presence of strict DRM.

2K ran into this exact same problem with the first Bioshock. Electronic Arts has run into it multiple times, as have other publishers. EA’s Spore, in particular, suffered from a severe case of fanbase outrage when it was revealed that DRM would limit the game to three installs. Incensed gamers swarmed Amazon.com with single-star reviews of the game based on the DRM.

In theory DRM sounds reasonable, but in practice it’s really irritating. Should gamers really have to call some foreign technical service agent just to install their game, after paying a premium for it? After shelling out our hard-earned cash for the privilege of playing a new game, should we then be subjected to periodic checkups on our honesty?

There are a great many examples of the backlash copy protection software has had. Anybody with a modicum of skill (i.e., most pirates) can circumvent DRM without too much trouble. Honest users are the ones really suffering from intense copy protection schemes. And said schemes are driving those honest users into the arms of pirates, or away from the PC platform altogether.

DRM is a self-defeating scheme. It doesn’t stop the pirates, it frustrates honest users, it’s expensive to implement and maintain, and it drums up a truckload of bad PR for PC game developers. It’s time publishers realized this and found better ways to discourage illegal distribution.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.