DMA has nothing to do with anti-piracy, as far as I know.
I haven't used an Acekard in a while, but I think this should help:
"Some games need hold A button to launch after patched anti-piracy patch. Now you can setup enable or disable DMA in menu. Press Y button twice when selected game and set up DMA. Enable DMA equal normal press A button to launch. Disable DMA equal hold A button to launch. "
That was about the Acekard 2i Firmware version 4.23, released July 21st 2010. Either someone's marking the versions wrongly, or you're out of date.