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To some extent the benefit of civil prosecution of greivous offenders helps a publisher by getting extra cash to pursue future ventures.
I am thinking of AutoDesk here. They started a campaign some years ago of going after universities and large companies who were illegally using unpaid copies of AutoCad. There were some very high profile settlements (hundreds of thousands of dollars in instances, beyond attorney fees) and I believe that "enforcement income" helped AutoDesk evolve their product. Along the way they also picked up a no-B.S. reputation when it comes to piracy. Can you get pirated/cracked AutoDesk products today? Sure. But you can bet they have more legitimate users than they would have if they did nothing.
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