In between all the flame wars, there is some interesting stuff here. This forum is the only one where I have wished for a kill filter
Fascinating.
Anyway, the download load and peak problem could possibly be solved by some of the emergent technologies such as Torrent. As for piracy, in games like dominions, I would go for a CD-key like the one already in use, or maybe a bit more advanced. This is from a techies point of view. I'm image that Torrent is probably not so easy in the windowsworld.