Sorry to stick my head in the lion's whatever, but I tend to agree with Titan Ten. the concept of Piracy is used far too often.
Before I get shot here, the way he was, I'd like to say I have bought it (though I realise that everyone says so evenif they didn't). And I'm actually about to buy it again, since I cannot make a backup that will be installable in a computer without internet connection. It is not possible so far

. So in the end the game will have costed me my totalgaming subscritption plus 30$ of bow upgrade plus s/h to France (where by the way the game isn't even sold as far as I can tell).
Now to the point. I think you all need to have a little more balance in this subject. So what about a book? Lending it to a friend is piracy ? It definetly hurts the author... but we all do it. Everyone used to make tapes of discs and copy LPdiscs to friends as well. Or record songs from the radio. Noone ever went broke because of that.
What is the difference between letting him lend the game to a friend, which he could have done (provided he had the game on a CD) , friend who will not have the possibilty to install any upgrads or new components that stardock created for us Legal buyers, and lending the cd of another game, that he wouldn't be playing anymore? So if I understand correctly noone here has ever lended a game to anyone? That's nice...
Now in the case of galciv, specially considering there is no demo yet (as far as I know, and if there is I stand corrected) , lending it could encourage the person to buy it, no? And what difference would there be if I invited some friend of mine to come play at my home, on my internet connected and SDC verified computer, my copy of the game, whenever he wants? specially since I only have time to play a few hours a week. I went to my parents house in the country for the week end, and could not install the game, as I said, which was a bit irritating. What evil would have come from letting my little brother try it out, event thought we are not in the same house anymore (there is like 15 years between us)?
I'm just saying, alittle more moderation in the reactions would be nice. Ii come to these forums since march 2003 and they are usually very friendly.
(duck and cover

)