Morkonan,  We've obviously taken some of the same marketing and business courses.

And falling into the same old trap that a lot of people are when it comes to understanding what a modern digital economy means, that thinking of it in "traditional" terms is going to screw you up.
There have been assorted people looking at how you can make money in this type of environment, and the first thing that it requires is to stop thinking of digital content as being the same thing as physical products and that the business models of the latter are appropriate for the former.

For example, just off the top of my head, quite a few creators could easily adopt the Kickstarter business model. If X dollars is raised (and you can determine whatever X is however you want), then the software, or 3D model, or whatever is released. However many computers it ends up on, it doesn't matter. You got paid in advance. And, in fact, the more the file is shared and the more people who use it, the better for your business model because that means there will be greater demand for your next product.

In essence, what you're selling isn't the product, it's your reputation, that it's coming from you. And the better your reputation, the more you could ask for in advance. All those file sharing and torrent sites? They aren't your enemy, or "stealing" from you any more, they're your marketing team.

I know some artists who have had their digital work taken from subscription sites and it shows up on assorted free sites and torrents, but the way they look at it, sure, they might lose some money on subscriptions, but they make good coin on commissions. The piracy creates a demand for their work which they then exploit in a different manner.

This obviously won't work for everyone, but I could see it working for content creators with good reputations.