Re:Addressing only half the battle. (Score 1)

One of the best CD-key based systems was the one used on Quake 4. If you entered a generated CD key and ran the game offline, no problems. If you were online and couldn't talk to the master servers, again, no problems. If you were online with a legit CD key and you could connect to the master server, all was well. If you had a generated CD key that hadn't been issued by ID, and you started the game whilst online, the game "forgot" the CD key and prompted you to enter one. It's the best system I've ever seen. Mildly annoying for casual pirates (to encourage them to buy the game), no real effect on dedicated pirates (who wouldn't buy it anyway), and will never create a problem for a legitimate player.