Apparently, according to this article (MercuryNews.com | 07/07/2004 | 36 percent of software worldwide pirated, trade group says) there are a bunch of people saving billions of dollars on software by stealing it. What I wonder, and what is never asked by the journos, is how much of this stolen software would be purchased, if it couldn't be stolen? I suspect that the answer to this question is "Not frigging much." So how much are the software companies really losing? Someone needs to do a study on this number.