Originally Posted by woj

It's actually a tricky issue, it costs them no $$ to distribute pirated software, no $$ to support it, yet it gives them benefits... the logic is more clear with software like windows, if it was impossible to copy windows, many people would jump ship and would use linux instead... which obviously isn't good for microsoft... same with most other software, if faced with a choice between giving it away for free or letting customer use competitors product, it's probably better to give it away for free...