This is the kind of thing that you find cute and amazing upon first glance.
But then you look deeper into it. The title is indeed crafted by a very small independent team (two brothers, was it?), but they basically plagiarized everything present within the title from something released in '97 and re-released in 2010. Yes, that would be Game Dev Story.
They then use the DRM that they made to call out pirates.
Or in other words, get free marketing from the press and people who are now aware of the game.
I would definitely applause them for that if the first paragraph I typed wasn't true. When you put the two together, they seem somewhat scummy.
I hope they find creative and fiscal success with their next title.
Until then, I'll just go back to playing my purchased copy of Game Dev Story and not pay attention to this.
Which is what most people should do rather than pirate it.