Crossworlds DRM

[ailurus]

I'm a big fan of both Legends and Armored Princess, and I was just about to buy Crossworlds (through Impulse), when I noticed that it said Crossworlds has "Protection: StarForce Online Activation". Checked with gamersgate, and same thing there.

I recall from threads back when Legends was released that Starforce was initially present in the Russian and Polish versions of KB:TL, but removed for the US and European versions. I was wondering, therefore, what's the copy protection status on Crossworlds?

Is starforce included on US versions (purchasing through Impulse, if that matters)?
If it is included, what exactly is the "StarForce Online Activation"? Does it just do a check once when you run it for the first time, and that's it? Or do you need to be online every time you run it so it can check?

And is there a limit on the number of uninstalls/reinstalls you can do (I play on a laptop with limited hard disk space, so every few months I rotate out which games are installed and not, and activation limits would mean this cannot be done with Crossworlds)