Assassin´s Creed 2 DRM failure (PC)

This weekend, that which was prophesised came to pass: Ubisoft´s PC authentication server for Assassin´s Creed 2 crashed, preventing anyone from actually playing the game.

Ubisoft´s latest DRM measures for combating piracy involve a permanent link to their authentication servers, meaning the game would be unplayable without a constant internet connection. Unsurprisingly, this lead to cries of fear from the gaming community as a whole, as any server problems would render the game completely unplayable.
Well, the servers crashed for the whole weekend, leading to this exact situation. A representative for Ubisoft has confirmed that the problem is “unacceptable”, and that a fix is in the works.
However, several enterprising forums are already providing gamers with links to patched executables for the game, thereby rendering the whole DRM point somewhat moot.