Alright, first off let me say that I read the first two pages and skimmed the rest, so forgive me if someone already covered this.
This argument has been going in circles for a while now, and I think the real problem here is that Sayvara has serious Right vs Wrong opinions that are not going to change, and most of those trying to argue against him are defending themselves through rationalization of piracy, which only works if you DON'T have strong moral issues against it.
Now, I happen to be in favor of piracy in the sense that I think there are plenty of valid reasons to do it. At the same time, I agree with Sayvara most of the time when he actually argues rationally rather than morally. As has been pointed out already, both piracy and the way customers have been treated lately are bad. However, at this point in the cycle piracy is not going to go away, nor are the policies of software companies going to change anytime soon. Arguing that both sides are wrong and should just stop it isn't a possibility anymore.
The main problem I have with Sayvara is his opinion that all piracy is bad and that pirates are an enemy of the developers. There have been plenty of reasons given so far as to why this isn't the case and I'm not going to list them now, but the main point I have is that pirates are not all out to get you. Most of them simply wish to use your software but do not feel that you are giving them their money's worth, or cannot use it in the form you are selling it for various technical or regional reasons (BTW, I feel that regional restrictions to be complete bullshit and circumvent them whenever I can. This is not up for debate, at least not with me.) Most pirates are quite willing to buy software when it is offered at a reasonable price with minimal restrictions, but if this isn't the case they don't have any problem with getting it other ways. I'm not arguing the moral issues of that here, I'm simply stating their (and in some cases my) way of thinking.
Most people feel that when they buy a program, and then cannot use said program or are heavily restricted in its use, they have been wronged. You can argue about how the developers have every right to set whatever conditions they like on the sale, but the general public does not agree with you. When someone buys something, they expect it to be theirs. This has been brought up many times before and while your arguments for why this isn't the case for software are valid from a legal standpoint, most people don't agree with you and don't care what the law says about it. Software purchases are not seen as a rental, and at the current price of most of it no one is going to be convinced otherwise. I've said nothing here about whether this is Right or not because the moral and legal issues don't concern me at the moment. The issue at hand is that many people DO feel that pirating is justified is a lot of cases, and have no respect for the laws when those laws have caused them nothing but trouble with programs they have already paid for. Pirating something without paying for it first is different, but that too can be justified in some cases; I'm just not going to do it here because that tends to be situational and concerns individual morals, and obviously everyone here has a different set of ethics.
So what's to be done about it? Piracy has become a valid way to deal with software problems and unfair restrictions in the public eye, and it has gone on long enough that they're not going to stop just because the developers tell them it's wrong. All I can tell you is that casual piracy is no longer felt to be morally wrong in most cases, and using that argument is getting you nowhere. I don't really have an answer for how to fix things, but I say something needs to be done on the development side, as the public sure as hell isn't going to stop doing it under the current conditions. More importantly, piracy is becoming easier for the public to do as time goes on, and catching or punishing individuals for doing it is extremely difficult. It isn't going to be stopped through enforcement, and most pirates don't really want to have to do it anyway. The best solution is to just make software affordable and easy to use again so the public would rather just buy it and get the support along with it rather than bother with cracking it. The chances of that happening anytime soon are slim, but it's the only feasible way to fix things.
Again, I'm not bashing Sayvara here and I don't agree with those who pirate anything and everything just because they can. I just think that if we're going to discuss piracy it has to be done with the assumption that people are going to keep doing it so long as software remains in the state it is today. We need to discuss possible ways to fix the problem, not just debate over the morality. If you simply wanted to state your ethical views on the matter and leave it at that then fine, but that isn't going to do much good.
Sorry about the long post btw, I can't help throwing everything out at once during a discussion.