[analog31]

I think that in the long run, Microsoft profited from piracy. My rationale is that piracy gave a market advantage to the OS with the widest selection of "free" software. So long as folks could copy MS-DOS and Windows software from their workplace, there was little incentive to consider any other OS.

[ollysb]

It also cemented their file formats as the industry standard. The network effect is still strong even today.

[morganherlocker]

This cannot be understated. Different company and a smaller niche, but proprietary file formats have plagued the GIS industry for decades. The most widely used format (shapefile) is about as terrible as it gets as far as functionality goes, but it is used everywhere. There has been a mounting effort to persuade governments to use open formats for publishing data, but it has been slow going.