Mike,
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>"In 1999, U.S. piracy accounted for 1.8 billion in lost tax revenue, 107,000 lost jobs, and 5.3 billion in lost wages."
>
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Now that's an interesting quote. Why, I wonder, do they put it in terms of other people's projected losses? - governments and unemployeds?

Or do you think they mean that Microsoft itself would have paid $1.8 billion MORE in taxes, had 107,000 more employees and paid another $5.3 billion in wages?

Do you think they mean all of the software companies in the U.S., or worldwide for that matter?

As others have pointed out, potential lost sales are very different from actual lost sales.

I would put this "information" clearly into the "crap" category, tainted with extreme self-interest on the part of Microsoft.