Piracy has always been a cloudy issue among computer industry. Despite what I have presented here, currently piracy is still illegal, period. Because the current law can not keep up with the speed of the technology, it sometimes over-protects on issues like piracy, just like they did with segregation back in the 60s. The companies should take this matter into their own hand by changing their approach to distribute software. They can distribute an honest duplicate of the actual game without covering up the bad side. Better yet, they can release the actual game first, and if the consumers like it, they will send the money to get an enhanced version. There are already companies out there who are using this approach and they seem to work fairly well. The game, Doom, which started the era of 3D shoot'em up, was distributed under this method. The publisher, ID Software, released the first episode to public as a shareware, and if the players like it, they can send in a registration fee and they will get two more versions of the game. That worked pretty well actually, according to ID, thousands of registration fee were received even before they finished duplicating the two follow up episodes.(ID) The philosophy is it can be done, it is just a matter of if you want to do it. Some companies may not survive under this kind of approach because they rely heavily on advertisement but not on games. However, it is consumer's best interest to see that they only support the company who is producing quality software. So before any other better approaches can be taken by the companies, piracy will still exist. It is illegal, yes, but it is more fair to the consumers, and therefor it exists for a reason.