Oooh, it's been a while since I last saw a thread of this nature. I've gone back and forth on what I think about it through the years, and I think my current considered thoughts are as follows:
* In a strict legal definition, it's absolutely not piracy.
* However, I'm not comfortable with the notion of "It's on the disc, therefore you own it".
* I don't think current laws about software are well-suited to the modern software environment; the laws are still very much tied to the notion of physical product, but I think they'd be better served by separating the idea of the physical medium from the actual digital product that resides on that medium. There's lots of places where this falls down in the modern software industry.
* It's easy to get angry about microtransactions, but what about something less egregious that uses the same structure. What about a demo that contains the full game which you can unlock with a purchased code? I don't think anyone would disagree that in some way circumventing that would be a problem (although again, probably not strictly piracy). We really need a one-size fits all solution that doesn't treat digital products differently merely due to the form it's distributed in.
* Maybe we need to more accurately formalise the notion of software licenses - but they absolutely need to be done properly.
* For one (major) thing, people absolutely should have the right to transfer a license to another under whatever terms they deem fit; digital product should be sellable.
* But in turn, having access to the data that comprises a digital product should not implicitly give you the right to use it. Independent of this whole context, the notion of "If you have access to data you have the right to manipulate it" does open up interesting privacy implications due to how networks work. Does your ISP have the right to all the data that goes through its systems on the way to you?
In short: At the moment it's all a bit messy, with exceptions and the same product (being the digital entity) being handled under different laws depending on the form it's distributed in. In a perfect world, this really ought to be fixed up, because it's a mess.
One thing I don't recall touching on in previous such discussions: What laws exist to prevent various illicit means of decoding broadcasts (Cable TV, Satellite TV, whatever)? Again, not strictly piracy; again, it's manipulating data you have access to but don't strictly have the right to decode.