[cpilot]:...the problem is the sense of entitlement that people have to own software that they can't afford.
Cpilot steered the discussion tangentially toward the evil of piracy.
However, cracking is not piracy. It's only piracy when I download, install, and use the software illegally. As mouser stated, Adobe or AutoDesk can set the price their products to any amount, high, moderate, or low. But what others have argued is that
companies must be aware that if they charge €700 for a program, then the likelihood of it being cracked increases exponentially.
Therefore, companies and developers can discourage piracy — though not necessarily cracking — by sensible product pricing. Microsoft has already done this by producing a lite version of Windows and Office and selling it for next to nothing in Asia and India. I could care less who uses what software. The fact is that OpenOffice wouldn't be so popular if Microsoft had listened to its customers, had sold Office cheaper over the last fifteen years, and opened its file formats.
Microsoft made that choice and they made with their eyes wide open.
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