Well, I'm still not seeing any info from EA on why this is happening, to so many people, or any kind of support response.... All I can find news-wise is EA decided to go with a standard serial number system, so if this is some kind of copy protection and they are not being upfront about it, AND not helping customers with legit copies, that's two strikes against them.
But to be clear, even though this is an EA fail, I still consider this the fault of people who copy games and distribute them illegally.
EA wouldn't bother with
any copy protection if people would be honest. Thanks again, pirates. If you want to play it, pay for it. Otherwise, move along.
I'll take the game back tomorrow.