I, personally, wouldn't be surprised. I want to simply be able to put the disk in the drive, install it, put the CD safely away, and sit back and enjoy the game. I don't want to have to go through online registration just to play the single player or LAN portions of the game, or search for the CDs to every game that I own (and I have a lot of them) to sit down and have fun (not to mention that all of my CDs are unfortunatly starting to get those small, annoying scratches on them).

While I can, at least for now, get over the fact that most games require the CD, I flat out refuse to buy anything that I have to activate online even to play just the single player portion of it, uses starforce, or has other aggrivating copy protection. I just don't play them. If I weren't so concerned with doing the right thing and not becoming one of those whose pirating has created this copy protection mess in the first place, I could see illegally downloading games just because it would probably be a cracked copy which would likely address all of the problems listed above. Sad when pirates provide what could be better, hassle-free service than game companies do.

This is not an argument for, or against piracy; it's just the bottom line for what's being done:

Regarding the argument of pirating a new game to "try before you buy". You're still stealing $50-$60 for a full product, whether or not you intended to buy it later.

Although it is unfortunate if a new game does not have a demo, or if you don't have a friend who has it (so you can try it), that is still not an excuse. (In case you dont trust big game site reviews) With the internet, you have access to hundreds of personal user reviews, many websites or forums for the game in question, non-doctored gameplay videos posted by players on sites such as youtube, etc. There are enough resources out there to figure out if a game is for you.

And as for pirating because you think the publishers are evil bastards; that only encourges bright ideas such as the 10-day license verification and the like.

Now I will say that there are some situations where I am slightly inclined to pirate. Those situations always involve games that are no longer for sale ( or even being printed for that matter). Two examples would be Wing Commander: The Kilrathi Saga, and Daggerfall. Neither game is in print (in the case of Daggerfall, probably never will be again) and I really have only two ways of getting my hands on them, which is either download pirate copies or pay some seller on ebay/amazon ludicrous prices for a copy. In situations like that I sort of lean toward the side of piracey but... it's still stealing...

I must say I'm fed up with some of the anti-piracy measures taken. Web connection required to play a single-player game offline, e.g. - Portal, anyone? I played that game for one day, finished the main mode, but never got around to the bonuses. And I won't. Because there's no way I'm letting Steam stay on my harddrive. I have better things to take up my disk space. So I uninstalled them both on the same day, and I'm taking it back to GameStop. Getting some of my money back, due to their buyback policy ("We buy your used games!"). That means I end up paying less for it. Due to antipiracy. I've had games straight-up refuse to run. Legitimately bought copies! Because the piracy tests were defective. That is also theft. The companies' piracy policies essentially steal money from the customers, and here, at least, that is a legal offense much graver than software piracy.

I admit, I have downloaded illegal copies of games for myself. I once downloaded Born of Blood from a web page. I also once downloaded Space Rangers II. In the last case, I got a message saying "This is a pirated copy, and will only run for 1 hour". I was overjoyed! That was exactly what I wanted. Turned out the combat was too fiddly, and so I uninstalled it at the 15-minute mark. A simple demo would have been preferable, but since that's what I got anyway and it would have taken a lot less time. And rest assured, had the game been good enough to pay for, I'd have uninstalled it, ordered it online, and reinstalled it - because I'd want a 'clean' install. As for Born of Blood, it met my standards. It got uninstalled after ~1 hour, and I ordered it online. The same pattern repeats for every single instance of piracy in my life, because sitting on a pirated copy of anything makes me feel dirty.

Ergo, in my case, universal availability of demos would have completely stymied my involvement in piracy (Which ended when I realized the speed of my computer was going down in part because of it). Worth thinking about for game developers, maybe? At least, implementing SR2's method of anti-piracy instead of Starforce or Steam's might encourage more gamers to go from pirating any specific title to buying it. As it happens, I have bought more games due to the demo being good than I have ever downloaded games, legit or otherwise.

As for piracy being theft, the company loses nothing if the player wouldn't have bought the game in any case. Heck, I'm sure there are instances when a would-be pirate downloads a game, goes "Hey! this is good.", and then goes out and buys it. Is it wrong to download illegal copies of software? Indubitably. If for no other reason, then because innocent piracy begets malignant piracy - the type that does affect developer incomes.
In the end, malware was only part of the reason why I pirated games. Most of it was my conscience. I'm quite simply too damn responsible and civic-minded to make a good lawbreaker.

What is my point? Well, it may not be obvious, but there are two:
1) @ devs - make your games available for a free try-out before the purchase, and don't use DRMware that restricts your customers right and/or insult their honor.
2) @ gamers - don't pirate. Abstain from buying just that game instead, and support more liberal companied like SD.

[/confessions of an ex-small-time-pirate]

Postscript: You can watch movies, read books and listen to music for free legally (TV, the library and the radio). Why shouldn't that apply to games?

For one, I will admit I have done things I am not proud of, including stealing. But that doesn't make it right. The only reasons I put up those two codes is because they are so old. I meant nothing religious about them. Loserbob is right too about copy protection though, the dreamcast was killed mainly by piracy. I have a lot of popular games that would be subject to atleast twice the piracy if they didn't have the security measures on them. If you read what Stardock is saying, you'll see that they aren't worried about piracy because of the market they are in. How they came to that conclusion I don't know, but they are only doing it for this market.

And again, stealing is wrong, no matter what. I am not better than anyone else and admitting that doesn't make me any better either.

Interesting how people continue to ask this question even inside a forum of a best-selling game that does not do these things. Why, its almost as if some people cannot learn the answers to their own questions because they are impervious to answers that they do not want to hear.