A lot of interesting takes here, but I DO firmly place the blame on the publishers. I'll try to dig around for some numbers, but two of the top selling games over the past few years have NOT used copy protection. Imagine that. I won't buy a game that uses it (I haven't bought many PC games lately, obviously). I planned to buy Spore, but now I will not (buy it at least). Yes, I think piracy is wrong, in many ways. However, publishers chasing away legit customers due to DRM that is borken (which nearly all of it is in some way, shape or form) is just ridiculous. The people who already planned to pirate either game still will. The people that planned to BUY it still will. The only outcome is that some people will buy it retail and then NOT be able to play, thus making another agitated customer. Show me a case of any gamer who pirates their games ever being prevented from doing so for more than 1-2 weeks after the release date... such a case does not exist. So, who are we helping? Well, honestly, nobody. Not the publisher, not the developer and certainly not the legit end user. Who are we HURTING? Well, SOME legit end users, and thusly the publisher and developer to some degree, albeit likely a small one.
I worked for a company that developed and provided DRM for clients using the internet to distribute video media (streaming and downloaded). Luckily this was NOT my primary department. I detest DRM. I have yet to see a case where DRM has proven to protect very much, especially in the video game industry. I have, however, seen MANY cases of DRM hurting legit customers. Wow, seems like a great scheme. The Sony DRM Rootkit? Sony Records Audio CD DRM that has proven three times over the course of its life to not work in Book Standard CD players? Bioshock's initial DRM that caused people to become furious and an immediate patch was made to change it?
An old post of mine about DRM. The points remain relatively the same. Sorry for the rambling, but this topic gets me in a tizzy. Most new copy protection schemes are broken BEFORE they are even released in new software. I would bet money (if I had any) that Spore will be cracked days to weeks before it hits retail shelves. Yeah, that's really sticking it to the pirates, right? I would also wager at strong odds that within a few weeks of release you see numerous reports of problems with the copy prot scheme. Yup, that's looking out for the real customers, too.
I don't know how anyone can argue FOR DRM these days. It's proven it's worthlessness from all angles over the past 5-10 years. Obviously a few of these companies still have really good marketing folks. *sigh*