Interesting to see the poll results and read the justifications on this discussion.

There was a fully functional, expensive cad/cam 3d software I tried a few years back that was handed out freely. We were encouraged to make copies to take home and give to friends. Their rational was that they wanted maximum exposure and they wanted potential customers to see how great it was.
They said anyone who profited from the software without purchasing it would vigorously pursued and sued.
I felt this was an interesting approach and indeed, many got hooked on it.

Something that irks me in Canada is how pay a 12 cent copyright levy on every blank cd sold based on the assumption that the disc will be used to copy an audio cd. Guilty before charged!
I've been told this is what makes blank cd's more expensive in Canada than blank DVD's.

In a similar vein, check out this interesting story about manufacturers charging to activate features that already exist. http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/19...-crippled.html