It just hit me what this dumbass decision is all about. Sales are less than projected for 4e and DDI and a scapegoat is needed. Think about it. It makes no sense otherwise. But if you have a boss chewing your butt off, because his boss is chewing his off, because the numbers aren't there, you need to do something, anything, to make it look like you're addressing the problem.
Since losses due to pirating are impossible to prove, (and in fact pirating may arguably lead to more sales in the long run,) its also impossible to disprove. So the lackey gives the idea to the boss who dutifully passes it along to his boss, and they all gain another business quarter to hope that something changes. The lackeys and low level bosses now its all BS, but hey, they get to keep their jobs for another few months. They make a big deal of it, send out press releases, prosecute a few people internationally in some lame attempt to strike fear into the hearts of pirates.
And all they do is piss off their ever dwindling base of customers.
By sales being less than projected, don't get me wrong. They can be through the roof. But if they are less than some spreadsheet said they had to be, based on factors not at all related to reality, heads will roll.
Who else here has worked in a big corporate environment---come on---doesn't it make sense in a dumb corporate kinda way?
