Interestingly, you could take someone's game book, type the entire thing up as you saw it without copying a single actual word and sell it, or give it away completely legally.
Then there is the topic of just how long IP remains 'copyrightable' and how long someone should be able to profit from it. No single solution is viable or fair. In theory, if the copyright expired with the death of the creator, the creator's heirs are robbed of his hard work, presumably on their behalf. For a particularly valuable property, you create the real probability that someone will get murdered to 'free it up'.
The idea that 'information wants to be free' is an interesting meme, though of course without semantic ground to stand on. Information doesn't want anything. No one creates in a vacuum, and the wider variety of sources you have to draw upon, the richer the resultant work CAN be... on the other hand, you have an inherent right to profit from your own labors.
The Music industry is particularly troublesome, as the people making the money in general are not the artists, who are typically paid peanuts for their actual work (thus the touring...) and quite often don't actually own the rights to their own work. Thus, in theory, the pirates are stealing from robber barons, rather than the artists themselves.
Of course, in RPG terms, this isn't the case. With very few exceptions the actual people doing the work are the originators of the idea, or contract laborers, so the piracy is directly from the mouths of the artists themselves.
Of course, the impact of piracy on actual income is poorly understood. If joe gets a free online copy of BW from fred, and never buys a real copy, in theory Joe and Fred took money from Luke, who created BW. If Joe would not have bought the game anyway, then there was no real loss, only percieved loss. Of course, the possiblity that Joe will like the game and go out and actually BUY a copy means that their act of piracy actually PUT money in Luke's pocket. Never mind the intangibles like increased product visibility, celebrity and immortality via influence.
This is the sort of thing Ethesists make their money talking about. Lawyers build careers on defining IP law to the benefit of clients.
Knee jerk dismissal of piracy as inherently bad? Understandable and possibly accurate. Developing a real disdain for anyone who even jokingly refers to commiting piracy? Overdeveloped, irrational hatred.