We prove that the module categories of Noether algebras (i.e., algebras module finite over a noetherian center) and affine noetherian PI algebras over a field enjoy the following product property: whenever a direct product \prod _(n \in ℕ) M_n of finitely generated indecomposable modules M_n is a direct sum of finitely generated objects, there are repeats among the isomorphism types of the M_n. The rings with this property satisfy the pure semisimplicity conjecture which stipulates that vanishing one-sided pure global dimension entails finite representation type.