I support a full boycott of EA. No EA games - console, PC, or pirated version (because if I am unwilling to pay for it, I shouldn't play it). I will not relent until they remove their restrictive policies on all products.
To those considering virtualization, a few recommendations:
1) Use VMWare Workstation 6.5 beta, which supports DX9, with linux or Windows systems; VMWare fusion with Macs. Your hardware profile will be "generic", so if you upgrade your system you won't initiate a reactivation. Better yet, if the image is on an external hard drive or network share, you can move the image and thus access your XP game station from several different computers!
2) Use Symantec Altiris SVS 2.1 to virtualize the install - its free for personal use. This program captures file and registry structures and allows you to turn them on or off. With a global capture, all that crap (such as SecuROM) can be turned off when the game is not in use! Talk about an easy uninstall. Better yet, you can create a VSA (virtual software archive) and back it up - that if your image gets corrupted, reinstallation is really reimportation and won't trigger an activation! (Also, unlike other application virtualization solutions, capturing an install is not complicated - it is as difficult as installing the application normally.)