Pumeco,  a locked in content system WAS the original plan.  It is amazing how much stuff has gone down the memory hole and how much information you can find in DAZ's documentation.  Why do you think they went with the DSON file specification?  It was all spelled out.  Everyone seems to have forgotten about the web based version of DS4.  BTW, you can still see demos of it on UTube if you dig around for it.
The original plan was that the content that you purchased at DAZ would reside on servers in Utah, and it would be pushed to your computer for your use - and deleted after you were done. This was DAZ's method of dealing with the casual piracy issue. 
Needless to say, that went over like a popcorn fart in church and DAZ wisely dropped the idea.

Yes, the plan did include a web-version, which presumably would have had content on the cloud (if we were calling it that back then), but as I recall DAZ always said that the format used for Genesis etc. (what was finalised as DSON in DS 4.5) would be open, and as far as I recall denied any intention of locking content in the non-web versions at least. There were certainly an expectation of some kind of DRM system when the Install Manager was announced, but again it was made clear that that was not the plan.