The existing copyright system needs a radical overhaul. Intellectual property isn't a natural law; the concept of copyright has only been around in anything like its current form for a few hundred years. It was designed for a system of media distribution that doesn't exist any more, and it needs to be updated to suit the reality of the world today.
Before the invention of the printing press, the idea of restricting anyone from copying media would have seemed like madness, because every picture and drawing was at constant risk of perishing; every word copied was a victory against ignorance and the loss of information. After the printing press started to be used in Europe, the rules changed to suit the new media landscape: it cost a lot to set up a printing workshop, but once there it was relatively cheap and easy to make copies of a text, so the laws were formed to prevent publishers from stealing and totally monopolising the work of authors.
Now the media landscape has changed again. Copying media is trivial; there is virtually no cost in duplicating any form of media. Media no longer has the same scarcity value that it did. It's possible for exchanging and integrating media to be an easy, cheap, open practice, which the world would benefit greatly from. We could have a world in which both costs and prices radically decrease and creativity is allowed to flourish instead of monolithic businesses.
But lawmakers and publishing companies of all kinds are not interested in what the new creative world could be like; they're trying to hang on to the old model of copyright, that was designed for a very different media world.
The most basic business model for all industries is:
1) Produce a product that consumers can't get elsewhere as easily.
2) Sell the product at a price consumers will accept.
But the business model of games and music publishing is:
1) Take a product that consumers already can get elsewhere.
2) Stop them from getting it by making it illegal.
3) Sell it to them at the highest price they will tolerate.
This isn't a moral argument, by the way, so don't ask me how game developers will feed their families. I'm not advocating a change, I'm just pointing out the way things are. But we will all be better off ultimately if people accept the reality of modern communications instead of trying to turn back the clock.
P.S. I don't pirate games.
