I have a hard time being that anti-DRM. I make a good part of my living writing commercial software (a network management tool, not games). We have license keys for our software, and I know that it's only a matter of time before cracked copies start appearing. That bothers me a lot.

The big problem with DRM, in my view, is not its existence, but that it over-reaches. Not only can you not make copies of a game and become your own mini-publisher, but you can't even loan your copy to a friend when you're done with it -- something that we ought to be able to do, just like any book, console game, CD, or DVD. You used to be able to do that with CD-published games. I played Half-Life that way (and then turned around and bought the sequels).

If you want to play a game for free right now, there's an excellent solution -- find a friend who has it, and play it with your friend. World of Goo in particular is so much better with two or three people taking turns and giving tips.
 

Ok. I hate the game pirates as much as the next person, but I just don't believe that these numbers translate to anything useful beyond World of Goo.

Are you going to tell me that 42.3 million people pirated Fallout 3? No, that just didn't happen. Fallout 3 sold 4.7 million copies in the first ten days. I'm fairly positive that there aren't 50 million people playing the game.
 

@Xumkin: As far as percentages - I don't know. I think someone estimated that there was about a half a million downloads of Fallout 3 going on through torrent sites on the day Fallout 3 was released - and that's not including the downloads the three weeks earlier when the 360 version was leaked. Whenever somebody shows some clear, solid data about how badly games are pirated, I'm still astonished at how bad it is. So I'm not even going to hazard a guess on FO3's level of piracy.

@John - On top of that, I'd add one more problem: Being able to play a game when it is no longer being supported (because it's development studio or publisher went out of business, etc). Activation DRM depends upon their being someone on the other end of the connection always willing to provide you with the magic code in order to play the game you paid good money for. Sure, they are HAPPY to do that the first year or so --- but what about five years later, when it's no longer generating revenue and has now become a burden?

Suddenly you HAVE to find a cracked / pirated version to play your game.

So yeah. I'm not much of a fan of DRM, especially since I'm a retrogamer. And I also recognize that the draconian version of DRM that people now equate with the term is a far cry from what it could / should be.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to needing two approaches: Besides doing what they can to curtail piracy and prosecute the CRAP out of those you can positively identify and bring to justice, publishers also need to really reward the proven customers. That probably rubs them the wrong way, as it sounds like feeding the fish after you caught 'em. But the stick alone won't do it (if I may continue to mix metaphors...) - you need a carrot, too.