>it's hard to classify their actions from a moral standpoint as something other than stealing. It is easy. In those cases the owner hasn't been deprived of any

>it's hard to classify their actions from a moral standpoint as something other than stealing. It is easy. In those cases the owner hasn't been deprived of anything but potential profit. If there was a competing game some of the potential pirates might buy that instead, they might watch TV or read a book instead of playing a game. It is just competition. I find it ridiculous that under current law it is illegal to make unauthorised copies of games, but perfectly legal to make a clone/reimplementation. Both can deprive the original author of potential profit. Of course this is why some of the big players in the IP industry have been muttering about "patents" on creative works.