Something else that needs to be taken into consideration is the extent to which commercial pricing of much software is based around corporate buying: that is, Adobe expects companies to buy Photoshop, and treat the purchase as a deductable expense. So: how does someone gain sufficient experience to work with Photoshop in an office environment? Essentially, by piracy. So there's something of a blind eye turned to low-level individual piracy for software that's essential in the workplace, simply because it's the only way to sustain a flow of sufficiently-trained (or indoctrinated) workers. After all, corporations can't usually get away with piracy, given the role of FAST and other organisations in auditing offices for licences. Think of it as an equivalent of the drug dealers' tactic of 'you get the first one for free, and then you're hooked.'