"The survey was commissioned by Microsoft Australia and
determined 45% of Australians believed software piracy was
acceptable for their own use. It would be reasonable to think these
viewpoints are shared across the world in similar numbers.
"Microsoft has its own set of problems to deal with as a result
of the survey findings. They don’t want their software to be
used by those who have not paid for it. Can they in good conscience
withhold security updates from unlicensed users? Do they increase
the price thus making licensed users be unfairly taxed to cover the
lost revenue? There is no end of ramifications that the Redmond
giant will be considering.
"On the other side of the fence, those of us who work to
advocate the use of free and open source software, such as the
alternate operating system Linux, find that one argument in our
arsenal is greatly weakened."
