Sigh... If we're all going to play with this analogy, let's get it right.
Let's say McDonald's sells a custom plate (vanilla), and those that buy it are part of a club that can buy a special cheeseburger(pay a sub to play wow). Every year, they release a new plate (expansion) and change up the menu (new content), but for awhile they kept that original cheeseburger, maybe just tweaking the recipe slightly (balance changes, etc). You have to buy the new plate to try the new stuff, but you can keep getting your same cheeseburger if that's your tastes.
Then they decide to discontinue the old burger entirely (cataclysm). They keep offering new plates and new menu items, even offering to give you last year's plate they didn't sell for free to keep you coming back.
The new stuff is okay, but you miss that old burger... Then you hear someone figured out that recipe and you can either make it at home for free, or your friends who're hosting a party for other people that like it(private servers) that only ask you occasionally give them a couple dollars for supplies if you have it to spare, but you can hang out and eat even if you don't.
The problem comes from some people being mad because you don't need to buy the plate at all to eat at your friends (piracy of the wow client), even though McDonald's was giving the old plate for free before they dropped it. And many people still have their original plates (cds).
Others are upset because these new burgers, while they aren't identical, taste a little too much like the original, and therefore must be from a stolen recipe instead of simply copying it.
