Modding doesn't automatically mean pirating, neither does dedicated server. Who reasons this way knows very little about PC gaming. Communities give the best PC games more longevity, also thanks to modding and server programs. Without longevity and devoted communities some games very buggy at release but with high potential would have died before being given the opportunity to show their value. And the most devoted communities don't condone piracy, with the only exception of games not produced and sold anymore.

Edit: this said, I'm not so naïve to ignore the high percentage of piracy plaguing PC games, but piracy, modding and dedicated servers aren't the same thing.

Careful! I said almost the exact same thing in the thread announcing the change to MW2, and the entire forum jumped on me like hungry dingos.

Though, of course, Activision doesn't want this game to last long - they want you to buy the 10 more CoD games that'll come out by generation's end rather than keep playing this one, it's more profitable to them.  They'd ultimately rather release a shitty, short-lived product than a classic, so that they can keep on milking you for money.

^^
I understand the problem, but so much the worse for them, if I pay, I want something I like, and at least decent longevity is a game's indefeasible requirement for my tastes. And luckily I'm not alone.
Anyhow the problem is more for single player games, good multiplayer games are intrinsically long-lived, SW houses must live with it or give up and develop something else. A short-lived multiplayer game will gather a scarce and unenthusiastic community, killing itself very soon. They can try dirty tricks with renownned series once, at most twice, then reputation sinks and short-term and short-sighted greed will kill dishonest SW houses.

Why did this thread get derailed into piracy so quickly?

Dedicated servers are important to me, so I don't think I will buy any games which don't support them. Unless it's a game I want for the single player of course.

200,000 people sign a petition.... and the world doesn't even care

Seriously, who cares. IW is obviously doing this to switch their development over to consoles where their latest games have really started to become popular and far outsold the PC versions. Piracy to blame....

These figures would tend to disagree with your assertion, especially as a fair percentage of those downloads would later translate into sales. There's a lot of piracy for sure, but nowhere near a majority of PC gamers are pirates.

But thats just ONE torrent site:  BitTorrent.  Pirates use uTorrent, Vuze, ArcticTorrent, Aria2, BitCommet, Bitflu, BitLet, BitThief, BitLord, CTorrent, Deluge, Halite, KTorrent, etc. etc.  That link you posted just goes to show that the majority of PC gamers ARE pirates because on just one Torrent Client you already have 830,000 downloads of CoD4.  I imagine the pirated copies of CoD4 actually far outnumber the legitimate ones!!!

Um, no, that's the total downloaded using the BitTorrent protocol, nothing to do with the client or site.

Another link.

Over 200,000 individuals DID NOT sign it. Look at the list and you'll see names appearsas much as 4 times. Lets not even consider how many are pirates. If you want a legitimate petition gooutside and make people sign it. A bunch of them will probably buy the game regardless.