> Its always been an open question to me in the case of Adobe if rampant piracy in the 2000s helped rather than hinder them.
it's not an open question, there are studies about how piracy helps industries (it was about media, it was financed by the EU, but when they got the results they didn't like it so they didn't advertised it much).
if not for product advocacy, consider product training: training is expensive and takes time, and most teenagers would do that themselves for free on your product. so if you're a company and pick a product that's heavily pirated, chances are some random applicant already knows the product.
how do you think microsoft office got so widespread ?
