@gabi @yomiel @VIPPER @lina @meso @pernia @sally Piracy is theft and murder with the help of a boat. See corrected below;

Unauthorized copying is a tool that promotes the use of proprietary software and contributes to the reinforcement of monopolies like those of Microsoft or Apple. Microsoft, actually wants you to use an unauthorized or prohibited copy of Windows, as by doing so, you’re not adopting an replacement operating system, but instead, you’re allowing microsoft to profit by spying on you and selling that and reinforcing the network effect of Windows.

When China started to heavily industrialize, they made the major error of making machine control computers etc use unauthorized or prohibited copies of windows instead of GNU/Linux and microsoft didn't do anything about that, as they wanted China to use their malware (not someone else's and certainly not free software).

While Microsoft could have chosen to semi-brick computers and make them demand a "license key" at that stage, that would have taught many people the consequences of proprietary software and led them to immediately adopt replacements (there wasn't much handcuff-in at that stage). Instead, microsoft waited several years until the spying statistics revealed a large monopoly and then pushed out a semi-bricking update that demanded payment for a "license key" via a backdoor.

Using free software and writing free replacements is the only effective way to combat the monopolies imposed by proprietary software companies.