@ Wayne
Having to pay for software you use is fine, however, MS make the licensing scheme ten times more complicated than it should/could be, with the intention that people will go for the 'safe' (read: most expensive) option in order to stay legal. It's also advantageous for MS for people to illegally use MS Office because it perpetuates the use of MS proprietary file format standards.
If everyone bought their copy of MSOffice, would it come down from its utterly insane price? No. Will MS ever make MS Works work properly, particularly its file format handling? No! Why? Because people don't need all the bells and whistles of Office, and a basic WP/spreadsheet package like Works, which costs 30 UKP (compared to Office, 400 UKP) would do them just fine.
I have no problem with supporting businesses by buying decent software, however, Microsoft take the ****.