Elkar

First off, let me state that I do not condone the piracy of software (or music or movies, etc...)

But... I am really getting sick of all these studies suggesting that pirates are costing these industries billions of dollars and forcing programmers to lose their jobs. By obsessing over piracy and focusing so much on prevention and lawsuits, these companies are driving their own costs up. This results in inflated prices and the treatment of EVERY customer as a potential criminal. And they wonder why so many people don't buy their software?

Not every pirated copy is a lost sale. Just because someone has a pirated program doesn't mean that they would have paid for it had a pirated version not been available. Most would simply have found an alternative or gone without.

Just accept the fact that piracy exists and isn't going away. Then stop believing these reports and just focus on delivering a quality product at a reasonable price. People will buy. Sure, some piracy will still happen, but it won't be "lost sales".

Just my 2 cents,
Elkar