I don't know how long newspapers will continue to publish the fabrications of organizations like the Business Software Alliance, but I wish they'd stop soon. Once again, for the record: the illegal use of a $100 software package does not represent a $100 loss to the company that produced it. A person who would use the illegal copy might not buy the legal copy - particularly when the cost of the legal copy represents a month's wages. On the other hand, the use of free versions of software by people who could not otherwise afford it actually represents a net gain for the company, since it increases the overall demand for the software, creating a network effect, pushing the software to ubquity.
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