The guys over at Ars put Spore’s 3-limit installation to the test.  To their surprise, they actually had a good dealing with an EA customer service rep.  Visit their website to read the full article.

While the issue of the install limit is a touchy one, it doesn’t look like a normal install will do much to use up your limit, and in fact we surpassed the install limit by a few times before running into an issue. Even after being told that we were “renting” the game, EA was happy to give us a new key to run the game. In this case, customer service wins, and we left wondering if the DRM controversy might be more philosophical in nature than rooted in any real-world inconveniences. 

So, I have to give an round of applause to EA Customer Service, but I still stand behind the fact that this was a bad business decision to begin with.