On to the next thing,,,I admitted it, I don't feel bad about it, I never apologized for it, and most important, IT'S STILL THE FAULT OF THE VICTIM!!
High prices are the cause of crime.
I'm really glad you did somthing illegal and immoral, but thank goodness it's not "theft" in your mind.
They shouldn't bring you "back into the fold", they should throw your sorry butt in jail.
Yeah, that's right, I don't feel too bad about it. And no, it's not theft in my mind. If I steal a car, somebody else is out a car. If I break copyright on intellectual property, somebody else is out a potential sale, at worst, assuming I would have otherwise paid for a copy. And I'm not blaming the "victim" (hard to see Microsoft in that light, though), I'm just suggesting they might have more success getting people to come back to legal software if their prices, particularly for the stand-alone retail versions, were lower.
And, BTW, even if they could find me and prove that I "stole" their software, they couldn't lay charges against me - individual software piracy is not a criminal offense (unlike actual theft of real property). The worst they could do is sue me, which would likely cost them more than they could recover.
Meanwhile, I have pirated software that works just fine despite their nagging, and their offer is to set me up with a legal copy for their inflated retail boxed price. I might even take them up on it, just to put myself right, but many others won't. They might, however, and I'd certainly be more inclined, if the price was more reasonable. Sorry if that doesn't fit your black and white view of the world, but that's how it is in the real world. A carrot and stick approach works better than just the stick, and really, where current versions like mine of XP are concerned, their stick is non-existent and the carrot is very tiny (an appeal to your conscience with a high price tag). Even if I go for it, many like me will not.