I'm probably pro-warez as well, but I'll argue on the other side for the sake of argument.

First of all, it is theft. If you're going to play their product that they spent their time and hard work on then they should also be paid. Not only are you stealing their product, but you are also stealing the effort that they put into making the game/music/whatever.

As you said, the warez may actually be making the artists more money by getting them popularity, but first of all, you don't know that for sure and it could be harming the artist, even if it is only minimally, and secondly if the artist takes the time making music or a game then they should be able to say how they want their product distributed. If they don't want to allow people to use their product without being paid for it, it is completely their choice, and we should honor those choices. If you want to allow people to pirate your games, then that choice is yours. Not everyone shares that view.

I concur with you that it is the companies obligation to protect their software from piracy. Truth is, though, that no matter how much they try to protect their product, there will always be someone out there who will figure out how to break into it. It's almost frivolous now days to try and protect things from being pirated.