I agree with your point for individuals and said as much. I posted this
because he was working on behalf of an organisation and trying to save them
money. Having your organisation mixed up in a litigation battle with
Microsoft is not saving money and there may be ethics involved, depending on
the organisation. A church would have to have higher standards and
scrupulously follow the letter of the law at least for outward appearances
for example.

In the end the user must decide what works for them. As open source users we
don't have to deal with this issue, but many Windows users face moral
dilemmas all of the time and companies encourage piracy with their pricing
policies which factor in piracy to their costs and at the same time put the
product out of reach for ordinary users. In Canada where I live it even goes
beyond this. It is legal to pirate because companies pushed for and got a
levy on all unrecordable media from CDs to usb keys. In effect users
are subsidizing companies for piracy and therefore free to pirate. This has
been tested in court where the courts have said that the industry can't have
it both ways. This has given the perception by the industry that Canada is a
haven for pirates. But it is really no worse than elsewhere. Most people
recognise that piracy is wrong and don't do it even though they are
compensating industry for their losses with each purchase. I find that
objectionable that I am paying for potential crime by others, but can't do
anything about it.