Piracy is a continuously bad situation with software.  It has been around since the earliest days and is a known factor in the downfall of many, many, many software companies both big and small (the list would probably fill an encyclopedia).  Lowering prices may curtail some piracy by drawing in those who would have purchased otherwise if not for the cost, but it won't make much of a dent I think.

There aren't any ways to win against it.  Even if the OS companies could devise a very good encryptive obfuscation scheme into the executable code (so that it is opaque and closed) and the CPU industry a hardware protection layer between the CPU and access of its operation (make the CPU operations opaque), it is almost guaranteed that there is some industrious aholes out there (possibly with funding or even governmental support) who would spend the time and money developing hardware to break that even (i.e.: hey, we'll put a sensor between the CPU and its slot to capture all of the instructions and operations - not even remotely improbable).

The solution - everyone gives away their software and some alternative mechanism be emplaced for financial prosperity.  Any takers on how to achieve that? ;)

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

Contact Me | Kuroyume's DevelopmentZone