Admittedly I haven't read the whole thread (Mostly just the first post), but I feel I should respond.
 
I definitely think releasing demos for PC games would reduce piracy. By how much remains to be seen, but it's entirely logical to assume it will. Now I'm just going to cut to the chase and say that I've pirated (and/or burned) PC games before. I'm not going to try to justify myself (partly because it's a futile effort, and partly because it's irrelevant to my point), but I will say that a very good amount  of those  were used to see how it would run on my PC - BF2 (Which I later bought because playing on non-ranked servers is pointless), AoE 3 (Bought after about a month, it was pretty scarce at the time), etc. There are many games (GTA 4 is a fairly recent example) that, had they actually posted the realistic system specs (and not the ones that will run it @ 800x600 on medium stetings), I wouldn't have even bothered with.
 
I know I'm just one person and that not everybody does the same, but take from this pointless little post what you will.

ye steam works.. ive pre ordered just cause 2 that demo was ace.. . ive bought plenty of games this year including mass effect 2 and bioshock 2 and dragon age all because  a demo was available i think once i searched the internet for a demo for majesty 2 only to find a rapid share full game . this has happens allot and it is kinda of frustrating when all you want to do is try a game what your really interested in .and to be confronted with this can be very tempting so for those people who aren't even aware of such things its become obvious what the easier thing to do is.  
 
i personally also love my special editions (rad tin stalker and bioshock) so steam doesn't always work in this respect. but i am noticing the retail outlets of pc games are getting allot smaller even the second hand shops have almost either gone or have stooped trading as many pc games. game have less than a maybe 1 foot.

I have 4 friends who have Borderlands. All of them torrented all of the DLC. Now see this from Gearbox's perspective.
 
We are criminals. That is all.

who thinks the OP posted this just for the clever title? :P

Business.