The companies estimate their annual loss from Canadian software piracy is $175 million.

But with the coming of the home computer, software piracy also appeared.

You mustn't get me wrong, I think the world would be much better without software piracy.

The industry claims software piracy to be a big problem, and take measures to counter this.

As a result, Microsoft can afford to take a hard line on software piracy.

The policy has been in effect for about five years, he added, but was strengthened last year after software piracy began to receive widespread attention.

The main reason for this decision was admittedly the financial losses due to software piracy.

Sure, software piracy was a serious threat and there were lean times, he said in an e-mail interview last week.

However, until the early 1990s, software piracy was not yet considered a serious problem by most people.

Depending on the country, in some cases, software piracy might become legal and encouraged.