WTF are you going on about? You put a CD in the drive and it blew up? I somehow don't believe you. Also, a CD/DVD isn't going to get lost or break unless YOU mishandle it. CDs that are sitting in a jewel case don't magically fly across the room or get scratches from inactivity. You can't lose a CD from proper handling. "Oh I had it sitting on my self and it magically disappeared." Really now?
In the event something does happen to you CD, like an earthquake damaged it (and I'm sure that copy of Witcher 2 will be your largest priority), if you registered your game you will probably get a downloadable version in your email if you contact the company.
1.) It did happen, and it damaged my CD/DVD drive.
Also, what I got from googling for (dvd exploded in drive, the fact that this is one of the top searches suggests it hash appened to people a lot. lol) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWI9MM1Zlfo
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-120065.html though, the fact he modified his drive may have had something to do with it... :/ but it still shows it does happen.
though, this post
http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/...ide-the-drive-from-a-drive-exceeding-24x-True
makes me believe my dvd drive could've been defective, or that the CD or DVD itself was and the heat emitted by the laser over time added some stress to it cause it to break into pieces in the drive. :/
Either way, I assure you it did happen. And if a drive you use is defective or the CD Itself is, how would you be at fault?
Though, this doesn't seem to be common considering what the 2nd poster said. :/ Though, I should also keep in mind, 10 -100 thousands worth of people or even higher will buy the game, so the chances that someone may get unlucky enough to get a defective CD or DVD exists.
Then you have people with children or pets who can't really be faulted with what their children or pets due to their discs.
2.) Not everyone likes to register, and direct download isn't always as fast as a decently seeded torrent (which, judging from all the Linux distros I've downloaded, utilizes all my bandwidth and downloads MUCH FASTER than direct download). Nor are downloads guaranteed to continue if your browser crashes. Which sounds like a crummy reason but I wouldn't be surprised if at least someone with a messed up CD/DVD downloaded it from a torrent for this reason, while they technically have the license to play the game. While you can't say they can't distribute it, who says they need to distribute it after the torrent is done? Or just disable seeding? At that point, it seems like a rather gray area.
Then there are people who download the game through another persons WIFI (probably limiting the bandwidth a little so they don't wonder why they're not is so slow). By the way, not everyone is tech savvy enough to put a password around their hotspot, or to use something better than WEP (which from what I read can be cracked easily). PLus, there are still other methods of distribution besides bittorrent, IRC, USENET, and file hosting sites. So this isn't completely effective and they may still get a lot of innocent people. Though, in most cases the ones they'll get will be pirates, but I guess by some standards the 'ends justify the means.' How cliche. lol
By the way, I can't say what the 'right way' is but I still feel this is a better direction then punishing people who actually bought the game. Like, 100x better, but I really hate it when people go on some kind of 'crusade' or holier than thou attitude.