9. So, should we support or ban piracy?

Varied Opinions

1) No need for piracy as there is plenty of free open source software now that has similar functionality with paid software.  “But nowadays there's so much good quality free software out there that there's no real need to pirate.”

2) Student, struggling underpaid worker wanting to improve IT skills to make themselves more employer deterred by high costs of software.

3) “I agree that piracy costs software firms money, but Microsoft, for example, don't seem to suffer. I believe that the high cost of Office used to be explained as including an element to cover losses due to piracy; yet when Office became difficult to copy, the price didn't drop. Perhaps making software affordable would encourage people to do the 'right thing'?”

4) “Software piracy is theft, pure and simple. As a software developer I know this and if it was my work being stolen I know how I'd feel about it. However I look at the prices of some software packages, that increasingly in this day and age are not luxuries for business use but necessities, and the size of some companies' profit margins and business tactics - and then I wonder if maybe the theft isn't on both sides."

Extracted from comments section from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2924531.stm