I think the first-sale doctrine precludes such blatant assfuckery shenanigans.

If the software has not been sold there can be no first-sale doctrine. Luckily, the majority software with an EULA is still sold, it's the nature of the transaction and not the fact that there is a license in the box that decides this.

i purchased a copy of X3TC from steam, even though i can back up the installed files, i can't play it off-line.  I have to be on-line for steam to connect to their server, then allow me access to my game.  WTF.  I was royally pissed.  In another thread, i rant and whine about the fact that in Grand theft auto 4, i am not allowed to save my progress, unless i create an account with the so called "rock star Social club".  Meaning, i play the game, and have to have an Internet connection, and my progress gets saved onto their on-line server, not onto my hard drive i presume.  BUT if i have no Internet connection,  i can't save at all.  It is bad enough that on their website, that they stated with even the downloaded SecruRom uninstaller, i will not be able to totally un-installed securRom or some of its components.  Of course, the game came in a limited number of activation.

But why would they help protect consumers when buying evil things which put bad ideas in the heads of our children about violence and nucular war? Hehe, oops, wrong administration. I hope he does deal with this issue and others involving the rights of software consumers. Although by the looks of it he may be busy for the next couple years cleaning up after the mess which was the last 8 years...

Sorry to bump an old topic, but Epic has now released a patch that deals with the problem. Download here

As for how long people tend to play games:

Suffice to say I just finished re-playing Wizardry 6 and 7.