What we need to do is put this all in perspective.

In the '80s and '90s Microsoft was very lax in enforcing its licensing "rights" and let people do whatever they wished (or copuld get away with) because the apparent motive was to spread MS software everywhere. Around the 2000 time frame, Microsoft began to get greedy and decisded to make all software subject to self checks and product activation, also about the same time that effective competition had ceased to their desktop monopoly.

Following the timeline and Microsoft's tactics are classic examples of monopolistic practices in a maturing market. The desktop software market is pretty much mature (little opportunity for substantial growth), so Microsoft must now resort to drastic and draconian measures to maintain its monopolistic profits (in excess of 80 percent on Office and in excess of 60 percent on the reset of Windows).

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