How would you propose to do A/B testing with pirates? It seems like a bit of a difficult proposition. It seems to me the only way you could run such any sort of

How would you propose to do A/B testing with pirates? It seems like a bit of a difficult proposition. It seems to me the only way you could run such any sort of test for this is by doing exactly what Gary is doing. Hopefully, after some time is passed, he might be willing to share whether he sees an improvement in sales. However, actions such as these aren't really about increasing the sales of any particular software product being sold. It's about creating an environment in which game piracy is frowned upon by the community in general. I'm not going to argue if it's effective or not (or even morally the right thing to do), but I think that it's missing the point to claim that if Gary does not see a direct increase in sales, then he's being foolish (which is what you seem to be implying). I suspect that this is more about respect†, than about money. †Again, we can debate if this sort of thing is the right way to go about gaining it, see Argorak's comment for obvious reasons why you don't want to do this.