Stardock CEO Brad Wardell is a longtime critic of copy protection, even going so far as to draft a "Gamer"s Bill of Rights" on the subject. Now he seems to have gotten a bit of vindication, with Demigod debuting at #3 in retail PC sales.

"But... but... what about those hundreds of thousands of pirates? Yep. Demigod is heavily pirated. And make no mistake, piracy pisses me off," Wardell wrote in the Sins of a Solar Empire forums.

"If you"re playing a pirated copy right now, if you"re one of those people on Hamachi or GameRanger playing a pirated copy and have been for more than a few days, then you should either buy it or accept that you"re a thief and quit rationalizing it any other way."