SimonG: On a legal side note. If a creator pulls a mod from circulation (due to the game being released commercially), "tracking down" the mod is similar to pirating the whole game. Unless a mod was developed as public domain, but I guess most aren't.
Freeware can be revoked. It won't affect the copies you have gotten while it was free, but you shouldn't get new ones.
The point is, if you are going to pirate, pirate the full game and not some early beta.
Not exactly...freeware can be revoked, but only if you have placed certain restrictions on its further distribution as it is released. Very few true freeware authors actually do this, and so the right of third parties to distribute the software remains unaffected. FRAPS was a good example of this, Xpadder another.
But then, the authors of these have removed the incentive to use the free versions by continuing to develop the software so that the free versions are inferior.
SimonG: Don't get me started on some of those "indy games". Especially when devs bitch that their gloryfied space invaders clone doesn't make them financially independent.
I agree, although I don't think specifically that simple games should do badly financially. What I do expect is that said games are complete, well-maintained and well-presented and...well, so many indie devs don't even manage that these days.
