Well, if you can’t beat ‘em… Finnish games developer RedLynx is releasing limited versions of its own games on the day of release to P2P file-sharing sites in the hope that gamers will shell out for a full version.

Speaking at the Develop Liverpool conference on Thursday (via Gamesindustry.biz), CEO Tero Virtala revealed that the latest version of its Flash-based PC and Xbox game Trials, normally $9.99 via download, is free via BitTorrent sites and the like—but the pirated version has no access to online leaderboards where gamers compare scores, which Virtala says is essential to fully enjoy the game.

In an unusual blast of pragmatism from a content owner, he says: “Piracy is here, so how can we take advantage of that?... That game relies really heavily on the server side – the leaderboards are the soul of the game.” Has it worked? The company has shifted almost units 150,000 of Trials since its launch 18 months ago—which at $9.99 per unit is just under $1.5 million, so not bad considering almost the whole game was made available for nothing on the day it launched.

With all the hubub over the UK and French governments warning, throttling and disconnecting web pirates at the request of big movie studios and music labels, it’s easy to forget that independent content producers can find even their most obscure works pirated just as fast. And lacking the legal might and political clout to influence parliaments and take BitTorrent trackers to court, indie producers just have to get on with the business of coping with mass piracy. One way is to let freeloaders freeload and hope the most committed fans are happy to pay.