Guitar Hero 5 Forces Mandatory Wii System Update

Nintendo Wii owners should be aware that Guitar Hero 5 will force a mandatory Wii System Update before the game will register on the Wii Channel.  This is particularly of concern to anyone running the "Homebrew Channel" or other third party modifications.

Upon loading the disc, I was surprised to see a "Wii System Update" icon instead of a "Guitar Hero 5" icon on the Wii Disc Channel. That's when I realized that unless you accept this update, you cannot play Guitar Hero 5.  Here's a series of photos showing the warnings:

You don't get a whole lot of choice when it comes to this update:

The warning reads:

IMPORTANT: If your Wii console includes unauthorized modifications, this update may detect and remove unauthorized content causing immediate or delayed inoperability of your console.  Failure to accept this update may also render this and future games unplayable.  If you do not wish to accept this update, you can hold down the POWER button for 4 seconds.

So if you want to play the game, you have to allow this update to rummage through your files and delete anything it doesn't like.  Huh?

Now to be fair, this isn't necessarily anything unique to Guitar Hero 5, but rather something that can happen with any new Wii game that comes bundled with a mandatory Wii System Update.

I'm a sworn enemy of DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) in all its forms, and I find it really obnoxious, inappropriate, and unwarranted when you find yourself being bullied into letting a company rummage through your files and delete anything they don't like.

Now, there certainly may be a legitimate new function required by Guitar Hero 5 that this update installs to allow the game to function.  That's fine.  It's the part about "detecting and removing unauthorized content causing immediate or delayed inoperability of your console" that I have a problem with.  What gives them the right to search and destroy files on the rest of my system, outside of their game files?  It's my property.

Reluctantly, I installed the update.  (I don't run Homebrew so theoretically shouldn't have anything to worry about.) I am running Wii System v4.0U and the Guitar Hero 5 mandatory update installed in about 3 seconds and then required a reboot of the Wii.  Surprisingly, after rebooting I found that my Wii remained at v4.0U.  The newest version, v4.1 has been available since July 15th, 2009, but I've deliberately avoided installing it.  This leaves me to wonder – what exactly did Guitar Hero 5 actually update?  Was this just a front to inspect my system for pirated software?  It's impossible to say.

Finally the game is ready to play.

What do you think about games requiring this type of mandatory update and "system shakedown"?