>Then, I remembered Novell had an "amnesty campaign" for Netware years ago, it was a huge success for them.
>Netware was hugely pirated in South America, so it was "popular"; acknowledging the problem, Novell launched a marketing campaign to "legitimize" copies with real licenses at an very attractive price. They sold a lot, created revenue and customers than are loyal up to date.
>
>Visual FoxPro is one of the most popular languages/databases in the world, people here may believe it or not.
>Pirated copies are all over, from Asia to East Europe to South America: we need to understand, with the economies being so different, USD$300 is very difficult to pay if your monthly salary or income is in the $100-$200 range.
>I'm not condoning piracy, I'm just pointing out were the problem has its roots.
>

So I should get penalized for living in the US, and have to pay full retail for my developer's licenses and MSDN? That's unfair to me and my clients - in fact, it's an open invitation for them to deal with people outside the US to take advantage of their pricing.

What about things like schooling? Should the cost of courses and tests be reduced for overseas developers for their certification? There's less high-technology development, so should the standards be reduced for certification, too? What about educational costs - my graduate schooling was quite expensive compared to attending a similar school in Latin America (admittedly, I'd likely have to learn Spanish or Portugese to attend). Or will someone underwrite the cost of my pursuing more than a minimal education?

No, thanks.