Seems like most people pirate for 1 of 2 reasons:

1) They are broke or just can't afford all of the games they want to play.

2) The games they want to play are either not able to be purchased or are so outrageously priced from secondhand sellers that buying a copy is impossible.

I really don't think piracy, as long as it is all kept free, is a problem. That's spoken as a game dev. My current game will be free, but if I were charging for it I wouldn't mind people pirating it because they likely wouldn't have bought it to begin with but will still likely contribute to the social energy surrounding the game. Part of the reason I'm making it free in the first place is to get more people playing it to drum up conversation.

I can't believe that companies will go so far as to hamper the game's performance just so nobody pirates their game for a few weeks. It turns the dialogue from "this game was so good!" to "this game performs like an old man's cock without viagra."