Personally, I'm hoping (but not expecting, sadly) that Mr. Terrific as a star will "fix" superheroes. Trying not to ramble, something terrible that the '80s and '90s did was set up this bizarre notion that "the good guys" needed to be intimidating and violent.
It's not their fault, since there's been a similar shift in society--those of us in older age brackets remember cops as friendly people in powder-blue shirts walking the downtown areas and being nice to people. Today, they sit in their cars in black paramilitary riot gear who you do NOT interrupt.
So, I'm hoping that Mr. Terrific will be a throwback to the kinds of heroes who kids (and adults) can look up to.
Granted, I'm not betting on it. There are too many other stars who are described as thieves, killers, and so forth, plus the assorted outright villains. But my point is that Mr. Terrific can be made to work and fill an empty niche that's been ignored ever since Batman writers started getting excited about martial arts. I mean, remember when Batman was the World's Greatest Detective and didn't growl at everyone...?
As for losing sales to piracy, I have two quick observations, which are no more than anecdotal, but might be of interest:
First, I think digital editions will reduce piracy, overall. It's easier to pirate an electronic product, sure, but it's also easier to buy. Most people I've spoken to about piracy do it because the product is basically inaccessible. Yeah, some people download Lady Gaga (she's a musician, right?) because they don't want to pay for an album, but they're not lost sales, because they weren't buying, anyway. Most people download TV shows that they missed but can't find online and aren't out on DVD. I'm guessing it's the same with comics.
So, by making the books easy to buy (I'd prefer cheaper, but it's not my business), they may actually cut down on piracy by preempting the pirate's audience.
Second...
http://boingboing.net/2011/05/16/piracy-sends-go-the.htmlA book was Amazon's top seller BEFORE it was released, because tons of people read and passed around a leaked PDF and wanted it. Without piracy, I doubt anybody would've heard of it.
Granted, this is a special case, because the book also has shock value, but it shows that it's entirely possible to build a marketing campaign around the pirates, rather than fighting them. And it's worth noting that there's a substantial group of comic readers who download pirated comic scans to decide what to buy.
So DC might be in a good position to make use of these effects, especially considering that, unlike Marvel, they've actively dragged their feet when it comes to finding and stopping pirates.
Also, quick side note: Without pirated comic scans, finding public domain comics would still be a pain in the neck. GAC actually grew out of increasing volumes of traffic of legally-sharable material in an underground comic torrent community. Interesting how that works, isn't it? Most of the comics shared on the Internet Archive are copyrighted, but the pirates got it (mostly) right.