Got Pirated Software?

You know not much bothers me personally but as a Microsoft partner when I go into a place to do business don't ask me to install pirated software. This is an interesting article at smallbizpipeline it shows that over a third of all software is pirated.
Now the problem is that most small businesses don't know what pirated means. I hate looking like a dope but I always do (or at least it feels like it) when I go into a prospective client and ask do you have Office or whatever software and they say, "Sure we've got Office" and they hand me a Office 97 CD and say that we put that on every PC we get.

Well sorry but that's not legal. I have to break the news and then just about break the account when I tell them how much it would be to upgrade to Office 2003. Sure I try to tell the client the benefits but its always about the bottom line.

The BSA in the article says that the loss is nearly $29 billion. Well I'm sure no one has pity for big old Microsoft but it's not just Microsoft that loses out. My company loses out as well. Every pirated copy that is used without going through a Microsoft partner represents lost revenue for every partner out there as well. And in today's tight economy that's hard to swallow.