BioShock PC CD Key Limited To Two PCs

The PC version of the just released first person action-RPG BioShock apparently limits the owner to installing it on just two PCs. A growing number of posts on the official 2K Games message boards has PC owners up in arms about this move which basically prevents owners from installing their legitimate copies of the game on more than two PCs, meaning if they decide to upgrade their PCs after the limit is hit they won't be able to play the game. This apparently is also an issue on the Steam delivered version of the game as well and FiringSquad can confirm that we have also dealt with the same issue while trying to install the game for benchmark testing. BioShock uses the SecuROM anti-piracy system and according to the message boards when contacted the SecuROM team have told users to contact 2K Games. So far 2K Games has yet to respond to the CD Key activation issue.

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Update2K Games' Elizabeth Tobey has now responded to the CD Key issue on the 2K Games' forums:

hey guys,
first, let me say this. you DO NOT NEED TO USE THE INTERNET EVERY TIME YOU PLAY THIS GAME. it is only the first time.
second, you can uninstall and reinstall this game, and if, by chance, you have 2 computers you want to simultaneously play this game on, you also can do that.
if by some chance you are reinstalling this game without uninstalling it first, a lot, there is a chance you may have to call securom and get a key, or deactivate some older installations.
but if you upgrade your hardware next week, you'll still be able to play the game. if you revamp your system and need to reinstall bioshock, just uninstall it before you go through the overhaul, and then do your reinstall.
calling it "hardware fingerprinting" is a bit alarmist. we do not transmit any of your data to any companies.
really, the only people who will be concerned about any of these security measures are those who are rapidly putting bioshock on many pcs... if you use the game as you normally do, you won't notice this at all.

UPDATE #2 from Brandon: As mentioned by JCal, I have run into this issue personally while performing BioShock DX9 vs DX10 performance testing. Right now I've got 2 copies of the game activated under Windows Vista, one for AMD Radeon testing and a second for testing NVIDIA GeForce cards with. Unfortunately now I can't run DX9 tests under Windows XP as I didn't realize I had to uninstall the game before formatting the hard drive. What irritates me about this system is why this wasn't made more clear in the manual or the readme file that shipped with the game. Also, what happens if someone has a fatal error in Windows (or a startup file gets corrupted) and can't get back to the control panel to uninstall the game? There are all kinds of additional scenarios that could prevent legitimate owners from playing this game as it stands now.

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