I can confirm that publishers were begging to install the copy protection which at least lasts for several days, not even weeks or months. The math for that was

I can confirm that publishers were begging to install the copy protection which at least lasts for several days, not even weeks or months. The math for that was pretty simple - on average, most impatient gamers, who buy the product in the first days, really do not care about the price but will prefer free option. To repeat, this is on average and works given 90% of games die after first weeks of sales in any case. Economies of megahits are way different.