And your final sentence explains it all. Incorporating an automated system that has already failed with no checks or balances. Guilty until proven faulty software. Then for them to say their hands are tied and that VAC bans are permanent and infallable. I mean come on. Then what is the best way to turn it into a plus? Give people not one, but two copies of L4D2. The purpose being some will gift it to friends who don't have Steam already. Boom, more userbase expansion. I got to give it to them they are smart businessmen.

I've had Steam since it was nothing but a MP replacement for W.O.N. and while I think Valve is one of the more talented developers, they are increasingly trying to make sure every PC gamer is stuck with their closed, monitored system. One of the points of PC gaming is having a more open environment than consoles. Then again, I guess some people like being led around by the hand and told how they can use things they purchase. The rate it's going in 5 or 10 years you'll only be able to game on PC by hooking into the Steam Cloud. Is that what people really want?

The BBB gets complaints about these things all the time.  Blizzard actually has a big black mark on its BBB report because it does the same thing.  The thing is, they just don't care.

I got a three week temporary ban from Battle.net because my internet connection dropped and I attempted to log back in before my previous battle.net connection had timed out.  Very common issue, if you look at Blizzard's Warcraft III tech support forums I guarantee that at all times there is a thread on the front page with this very problem.  Your only recourse is to wait out the ban, because the company policy is to ignore you.




EULA's are filled with blatantly unenforceable clauses.  The way the law currently works, consumers basically have no protection against these predatory practices, and no real recourse either.  The last case I followed up on over EULA's saw the software company essentially get its EULA sent to the shredder, but that was a case over ten licenses of a $1000 program...





Bottom line is that if there was a sudden surge in the number of bans, something must have changed recently.  

Often times it's actually a third party software (usually an anti-virus) that gets an update that causes a problem, and has nothing to do with the program that's bugging up.

Won't agree to terms I won't agree to, my friends!