Everyone wants 'free' Windows and sneakers

Research by a piracy-prevention consultancy, reports Silicon.com's Sylvia Carr, shows that software ranks second among the most popular categories of counterfeited goods, and that Microsoft is the top IT brand to be pirated. (Among all categories of pirated brands, Microsoft came in second behind Nike.) No surprise, then, that Microsoft customers looking to get the latest add-ons to Windows will now have to verify that their copy of the operating system is legit.