First of all let me say that i think SOASE is a great game, and i love the support you guys continue to give to this game.
I don't buy a lot of games for my pc since i'm more of a console gamer, however strategy games i like to play on my pc.
I also applaud your no copyprotection policy, and i'm happy to support that kind of thinking by buying Stardock games.

That said i was suprised to see that 1.03 is freely available on filefront.com since you do use a serial key on your products.
I thought the whole point of having a serial key was that you could only patch your game if you had bought the game.
Of course there still is online multiplayer which requires the serial key, but i hardly play online anyway.

I also checked filefront for Galactic Civilizations and those patches are freely available as well. Now since that's an older game maybe that's less strange (still a new add-on is due out in April i think) but SOASE is a brandnew game.

Don't get me wrong i don't feel ripped off or anything, your product is more than worth buying, but what's the point of a serial key if it's only used for multiplayer, why not make that freely available as well?

just my thoughts,
regards
Arnoud