What are they going to do? Arrest me for using "unlicensed" software? Do we really not have enough people in prisons for us to be locking people up for such retarded reasons?
Flameduck:
They won't arrest *YOU* for using unlicensed software. No offense intended, but most likely you are a small fry to the powerful politicians and corporate CEOs.
However, you creates some new communication software that lets people communicate via non-state-controlled means, allowing people to organize politically outside the established channels... and then you go to jail.
Or, you create a widely popular product that competes with with the product of an MP's big campaign supporter, or competes with a product that is a major employer in that MP's riding... then you go to jail.
Or you create a software product that automates the jobs currently done well organized and politically powerful unionized labor - then you go to jail.
The idea isn't to throw everyone in jail... the idea is to throw any troublesome people in jail. As long as you remain a semi-anonymous everyday joe, keep your mouth shut and don't rock the boat politically or economically, they probably won't bother you.
See, in third world dictatorships, they outright arrest/kill their political or economic rivals... in social democracies, such things are considered distasteful. Instead, they just create millions of pages of laws "for your protection", so many that it is impossible to comply with them all, or so vague that almost anyone can be considered in violation, and then when they want to get rid of you they charge you with an entirely legitimate crime that you really did commit!
Wealthy democracies have a much more civilized form of despotism!