POTW: The high seas of piracy

Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where the wider community is punnished for a smaller group's actions. In a perfect world, everyone would realise that piracy only negatively affects the gaming world and no one would do it. But there's always gonna be piracy.
I'm actually quite amazed how the piracy community is so united. It's just so accessable and people are willing to spend time to write instuctions as well as provide the content. What do they do it for? Popularity and website hits? Why not keep it for themselves alone?
I very much agree with nikack in that freebes with games is a much greater incentive to go out and buy it. We're very much materialistic people, and for some, merely the box, the instructions manual and the disc is as much incentive as they need to buy something. Others have philosophies that "If I can get it for free, why buy it?". Of course, this questions has probably been solved, albeit the answer diluted in the arguement.
The hardest thing you can do is to change someone. So it doesn't matter if you ask or persuade a pirate to stop, they won't listen because they don't think they're wrong. And one of the hardest things to do is admit you're wrong. Unfortunately, the dishonest people will keep on making waves, unknowing they're doing so, until some kind of crisis hits. An example you ask? I reckon the recent financial meltdown is a good one. Again, if you don't know how this happened, it's not worth me explaining here because it will also take up a lot of space. All we can do is list all the facts and points of view, and let the reader decide for themself.
Really, I reckon that Sony and Microsoft had every right to sue Wen Bin Gu for losses and damages. I reckon developers and publishers have every right to complain that their profit margins aren't as high as they otherwise would've been had piracy not delivered the content into a player's hands at no expense. I reckon that if they're willing to fight a losing battle, or make inconveniences to the pirates even if it means making inconveniences to common gamers, whether it be in quality or release date, that it is their decision. The developers and publishers aren't wrong for doing such a thing, but the problem is is that no one agree what is the universal right thing to do.
I'd like to ask a legitimately unbiased question to djrussel: Have you ever considered EB's 7 Day Moneyback guarantee for non-PC games or do you only use this method for PC games?
And to the rest of the community, apart from money being spent on combatting piracy instead of the game and apart from the extended release dates (which we should have come to expect by now), how else are game developers and publishers reactions to piracy hurting the general consumer?
Remember everyone that we are not a communist country. If you can't pay for it or if you won't pay for it, the creator won't let you have it. You may still get it without paying for it, but that's without the creator's consent. We're a capitalist society. Think about it, do you want it so that everyone earns the same as everyone else, no matter what job you do? If you do, remember that the hard working people will conclude that not working will get them the same pay, and the hard working people will stop working hard, and everyone's pay would sink. If you won't pay them the right amount, they won't do what they do to keep society happy. Likewise, if you don't pay game developers and publishers for their work, they'll stop working too. They're creating worlds, stories, characters, friends, experiences, atmospheres, memories, bliss and bring us together by a common interest, competitively and co-operatively. Who else can do such things better? And to think that they charge so little for such priverledges!