Quote Originally Posted by Monk View Post
How is it pirating? He's buying the game and obtaining a CD key. That is the entire point of the CD key activation, to tie the key to THAT steam account so it cannot be used on another.
Ok, one buys ETW, activates it through Steam, copies the said files and bundles them with a copy of ETW to give away to other people. Millions of software pirates are happy, indeed.

If that's the way it works, why do I have to activate ETW online during installation?
It serves no purpose.
Wouldn't it be the same to register ETW when I would like to play online, except that an annoyance for the honest customer would be missing?