There is no way to stop pirates doing what they do, and the only way to reduce the numbers is by sacrificing your rights and freedom.
Screw that.

If people learnt to separate what are actually two different things here, things would turn out for the better.  Piracy is something that happens as a result of the way things are, and the way things are is down to the lack of tangible goods.  The mistake you're all making (in typical corrupt govenmental style), is that you're incapable of understandig the concept of "tackling the root of the problem" instead of the result of it.

It is impossible to stop piracy, so what you should be asking yourselves is: How can we get people to buy what we're selling, instead of pirating it?

It was pointed out by someone earlier, that there is no loss of sale to someone who downloads a pirated version of your software, they would not a have paid for a download of the software anyway.  The failure there, is on the software publishers side, because just like the mentality of almost all the other companies out there, they don't understand why people donlt like paying for "non-tangible" when they know others out there have got it for free.

THAT is the problem which most dumbasses in business are incapable of grasping.

A lot of the poeple who download pirated software will do so because they don't feel any worth in paying for it, and even less worth when they know it's a product that will be getting pirated.  Piracy in the music industry is rife, but believe it or not, it's being dealt with, the answer being "tangible" formats, this is one of the reasons Vinyl continues to make a massive comeback.

One thing is for sure, if you're a band trying to make some sales, you will do better by releasing on Vinyl than allowing a-holes like Apple to suck on it.  What you do is you create your album, get a couple of hundred presses, and promote it on the indie stores.  You can sell Vinyl for extremely generous amounts of return, and the reason you can do that, the reason people are prepared to pay it, is because they get something the pirates don't get

THEY GET SOMETHING PHYSICAL!!!

Once that understanding becomes more and more obvious to people, more artists will get the sales they deserve, and the customer is happier with a physical, tangible product that can actually increase in value, and that's yet another reason why customers are happier with physical goods.

Apple and their iTunes, Amazon and their Kindle, virtual books, virtual music, virtual movies, Adobe and their greed-machine, all of that sort of stuff needs to be avoided.  Tangible is the answer to all of this, it has been proven time and time again that people are more prtapared to pay for tangible goods than virtual ones (for the resons pointed out above).  The bottom line is, people need to stop whining about the way things are if they're the sort of person that is prepared to buy virtual books, virtual music, and virtual movies - you deserve everything you get - because you form part of the problem by supporting such mechanisms.

If you want to support artists, support them as directly as possible, buy physical, and keep the greed-machines out of the picture, simple as that.
You have to give the PAYING customer something that the piratees can't get in the pirated version, and that means the product must be tangible.

I had to PAY for EVERY Vinyl I have, BECAUSE it's tangible!
Get it?

I can sell when I want, even at a profit!
Get it?

I don't need permission to sell!
Get it?

Therefore, I'm more than happy to PAY for a TANGIBLE product!
Get it?