Exactly WHAT kind of protection? It's not like the perpetrators are actually "in the store" so they can be arrested. How exactly do you stop somebody from buying software and then copying it and giving the copy to somebody else, or selling it cheaply. HOW? So far, every single thing I've heard of that was designed to prevent that was circumvented in next to no time by the people who do such things. If it's art that's posted online, anybody can download it. Period. AFAIK the ONLY way to keep this from happening is NOT to post it in the first place. If it's something designed to be downloaded and used, there's just no way you can stop people from making and giving/selling copies of it.