And unfortunately for the banks, utilities, and companies that use the software, no one will help them when their computers crash on New Year's Day 2000. Software companies don't provide service to software pirates. When it comes to the Y2K bug, pirates are in a bind. For ongoing Year 2000 coverage, visit Wired News' special section . That makes it tough to approach a vendor to get patches or consulting help.
Wholesale replacement is out of the question.
Most people with pirated software will never know they need an upgrade in the first place. Because the software has never been licensed, vendors can't contact the illicit operators to let them know their PC, server, or mainframe might not work next 1 January. Big companies with buggy pirate software on their networks probably won't know about it, either, said Samir Bodas, director of antipiracy at Microsoft. In countries where piracy is rampant, even large companies and government agencies copy whatever software they can find on the streets. There's often no centralized purchasing, deployment, and support system for big networks.