Copy protection experts Macrovision have recently conducted a software piracy survey across a number of popular gaming Web sites. Of the 2,219 PC gamers who responded, 52 percent admitted to having obtained cracked software, and 33 percent of those had acquired "ISO" files--essentially full CD images with the copy protection hacked out. A worrying 15 percent of the respondents owned up to having acquired 15 or more pirated games within the last two years.

The Electronic Software Association (ESA) currently estimates the impact of packaged software piracy on the games industry to be around $3 billion worldwide. Taking into account the rise in high-speed Internet file sharing, though, Macrovision believes that figure is actually much higher.