First, a little information on piracy:
There are two different types of software piracy. Blatant piracy is where you do not own the product, have no intention of paying money for it, so you copy it or download it for free. Then there is "casual piracy", which is practiced by many companies and such, where they pay for the original copy, but load the software on many different computers without paying for more user licenses. The latter is what most software companies are concerned with stopping. Take Windows XP for example; I heard a Microsoft rep asked whether he thought the new protection scheme could stop XP from being pirated. He explained that the main reason for the protection was to prevent "casual piracy".
Point #1: If you can't afford it, you can't have it!
Yes, I can have it. That is the great thing about the internet. God Bless Morpheus.
Point #2: Bullshit! Companies don't spend enormous amounts of capital on Research, Development, Marketing, and Distribution just to have their product hacked.
No, they spend enormous amounts of money to make money. But anyone knows that in the tech industry, the standard is the only thing that survives. Remember Prodigy? No, you probably don't because AOL was smart enough to GIVE THEIR PRODUCT AWAY; even though I'm sure they spent enormous amounts of capital on Research, Development, Marketing, and Distribution. Wish you would of bought AOL stock 5 years ago? So do I.
Point #3: Piracy doesn't increase availability, the product is ALREADY available, you just have to buy it! Hacked software = a revenue loss, NOT revenue generated.
Piracy DOES increase availability, in a major way. Don't you think more people are likely to use the software if they can get it for free? No matter how many people use a pirated piece of software, they will still be in the vast minority compared to the amount of people that pay. The pirated versions may be a short term revenue loss, but like shelling out $1,000,000 for a 30 sec Super Bowl spot, it will help their chances of standardization.
Point #4:Thats like saying "If I didn't want you to break into my house, and steal my stuff, or break into my car and steal it, I'd use something besides a lock and key!"
When it comes to protection schemes, software and tangible goods are two totally different animals. Software companies know how ridiculously easy it is to find serial codes, right in the comfort of your own home. The ease of which this can be done, coupled with the virtually 0% chance of being caught, leads normal "law abiding" citizens to do this. Almost all "law abiding" citizens WOULD draw the line at stealing tangible property, though, either due to moral convictions or the high chance of being caught. Software companies know this, and would come up with a better protection scheme to combat piracy, just as Microsoft has done with WinXP.