Maybe there needs to be a 'buy update' patch with no questions asked, but that would be drm to the hilt so there is no way that can be used without registering.
this is my thinking.. not specifically with games.
someone knowledgeable about where and from whom to get software gets the program, plays it, likes it, wants more.
the 'register your copy' thing may work, if its subtle and doesnt read 'now that you've pirated the program, would you like it for real?'.. though that doesn't seem so bad.
if you can buy any specific update pack in the vacuum, you will be an 'owner' with diminished ranking so far as that goes, perhaps, but maybe real enough to use online.
its like this: buy new, required DVD in the drive, etc.
hacked, free floating, moveable among all of your systems if you know how to (many will)
registered = thargoids . though that is so specific a hack may locate it, so it needs a real subtle spreading among the code to hide that one, etc.
know your opponent..
and above all, realize it will be hacked (you Don't think so, please, within a week)
make it worth it to register.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94524-Arkham-Asylum-Pirates-Get-a-Gimpy-Batman
this is a bit wordy
"
Apparently, one of said developers is Rocksteady Studios, creators of critical darling Batman: Arkham Asylum. Pirates who have illegally acquired the PC version of the game will find themselves playing the game with a Batman who has apparently forgotten how to use his moves, notably the glide-jump. In an amusing little thread on the Eidos forums, one pirate came to innocently report a bug, claiming that instead of gliding when the appropriate input was given, the Dark Knight would instead just spread his wings and fall to his death in poison gas.
"
No, this isn't angry birds. but like batman, where the pirate code only flys like a fly, something can be put in to keep the store from being lost.