"Activation Limit Reached"

I have been previously playing Mass Effect via the CD copy purchased 7 years ago, and have since hit the limit. Since the process of de-authorizing and re-authorizing my machine is an annoying thing to go through every time I get a new hard drive or clean my current one, I decided to purchase the game on Steam. I have removed the CD copy from my computer, and when I attempted to launch the game now on Steam, I recieved the same "activation limit has been reached" message.