The marketing value of Piracy!
Software piracy is an interesting area, in the proprietary vendor model. This article demonstrates the linkage between free samples (ie a pirated copy) and market success. There is no doubt that proprietary software vendors are reasonably well aware of the value of piracy to their overall business, particularly when it locks a user into a certain path. Microsoft windows is a classic case, almost everyone who uses a pirate version ends up buying a legitimate version simply to continue to use the functionality of accompanying software.
The pirate is less of a threat to the proprietary software industry than is open source software! Witness the rather extreme behavior of some software manufacturers who demonise the OSS model yet are strangely quiet about piracy.
If you accept that piracy is another form of the free sample, in marketing terms, consider the ubiquitous cigarette. Give a few of those away and look where the manufacturer ends up.