Does Piracy Promote Software Sales?
Piracy cost the software industry $30 billion in 2004, according to a study by Business Software Alliance. The not-so-secret secret, though, is that some companies turn a blind eye toward piracy, viewing it as a form of viral marketing.
With the music industry confronting the problem head-on in a very aggressive, public manner, software companies have taken a less aggressive approach. Believers in this method say that piracy not only gets their products name out to millions of people, but in the future many of the people who use the illegal software actually end up buying upgrades or other legitimate products.
THE LESSON: When is it file sharing and when is it stealing?
More info:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/19/business/piracy.php
