I have to agree with what you're saying.

Morality aside people do less damage to the Humble guys by pirating than they do by paying $0.01 as piracy doesn't actually cost them money the way that minimum pledging does.

I don't think that makes piracy OK, but that's one of a very small number of legitimately grey area times to pirate.

He's not. He has an issue with people giving away the key for a game that they still get to keep because they can still use the direct download/keys for other services.

I personally think there is a situation where it is okay to do so but I have no idea if the people giving the keys away are in it or not :P

Normally, I'd agree with you, but in this case I can't. The point that he's making is that the ability to steal or otherwise obtain the product for free isn't a legitimate way of bargaining as the retailer can't go as low as free.

Normally the fact that stealing a physical good deprives the retailer of not just the profit, but the cost of the item would be an important distinction to make; however in this case the mark up is such that they'd probably still be making a tiny market if they had to cut the price in half.
Technically it's somewhat grey area as there's a fixed component of CC processing and giving the 1/3 of the money 3 times is likely to net the developers somewhat less money than just giving all the money in one order.

That being said, either way it is a violation of the license, at least I assume I haven't bothered to look into it.

Exactly. I don't know how me being against DRM makes that hypocritical in the slightest.

When you buy one of these bundles you don't get Steam keys so that you can keep and play the DRM free version and then sell or give away the Steam keys. You are buying ONE license and the Steam key is so that you can play that version for achievements and other features if you so desire.

Moral sketchiness aside, isn't the "pay at least thirty-something cents or else the HB guys have to pay!" a myth? Doesn't Paypal eat up what we pay up to thirty-something cents, but it doesn't cost HB anything?
A reliable source would be nice.

If it makes you feel better I only gave away the keys to the games I have no intention of ever playing, if I wanted to play them I'd just keep the keys for myself.

I haven't yet, but plan soon to giveaway one of the keys.
SImply because I already owned the game on steam, so will never use either the steam key or direct download.

I can agree with this. For me, I think it's perfectly fine to give away the Steam key if you already have the game and don't even plan to use the direct download. For example, since I bought the first bundle I already had Gish (including a DRM free download version), so I had no issue throwing the second code I got to someone who wanted it.

Similarly, I already had Trauma and Frozen Synapse on Steam, but I wanted the DRM free version from the bundle. I didn't see an issue with giving the Steam key to my friend, as I already purchased the games, it was literally an extra copy.

If you give one person all the Steam keys, and one all the Desura keys, and keeping the downloads for yourself then yeah, that's morally shaky, but there are legitimate circumstances where it's not a problem.

No, it's not a myth, Visa and Mastercard both have what are essentially minimum payment for service which is why you often see signs requiring you to spend a certain amount of money in order to use a card. Up until recently that was banned by the agreements that vendors have with the card processor, but in the US at least they're now allowed to.

Paying only a small amount of money can lead to a merchant losing money on the transaction. It being through PayPal doesn't change the minimum fees that the card Visa, Mastercard et al., charge.

As for piracy - if the interwebs Gods care if you take it, by hook or by crook, you won't be able to get it.

You'll sure waste a lot of time trying though.

This is how I handle it. I would never give out the Desura keys for games I redeemed on Steam. But if I already bought a game before (Fate of the World, e.g.) I have no problem in giving that key away. Also, I usually pay around 10 $ for each bundle, so that is like buying two most of the time anyway.

Next humble bundle will be fun, as I own all the games already. But I want the bonus, so I will get this too. Which will leave me with a lot of keys ...

The organisers of the Indie Royale Bundles have stated that you can "do what you like" with the extra keys you have. With these bundles, you are given a separate key for each game, so as long as you haven't redeemed any of the keys associated with a particular game, you are welcome to give it away.

On the flip side, the Humble Bundles have one key for the entire bundle. Redeeming a Steam key, then giving away the Desura key for the same bundle is against the rules. If you want to give anything away here, you should be purchasing an additional gift copy of the bundle.

I think giving away Steam keys from Humble Bundles is technically piracy, since you're not supposed to do it.

If someone's intention of giving away keys is to expose the game(s) to people who can't use credit cards, they can just as well do it the "right" way - gifting the complete bundle.

I thought that too, but on the other hand, the IR ToS says you can't share or give away any keys: "You must not: disclose any keys or logins for any Account to any other person; nor allow any other person access any part of the System through your Account."

That refers to your account on www.indieroyale.com, not the individual keys.