"We should stop supporting IE6"
"What percentage of people use IE6?"
"10%"
"Hmm, 10% sounds like a lot of people ... let's support it!"
If your target audience is English-speaking or European countries, the relevant proportion is 2% to 3% or less.
That's a pretty good level to start to consider whether supporting that small percentage is actually making you more money than you would if you didn't support their browser.
The government mandate encouraged many websites to also use ActiveX. South Korea is probably the only country where ActiveX is still in use. Internet Explorer has a browser share of 90-95% in Korea. IE6 is about 15-20% of this.
The sordid history is here! -> http://blog.mozilla.com/gen/2007/02/27/the-cost-of-monocultu...
People don't feel any need to upgrade, as everything works with their current browser/OS.
I've used the internet at my Sister in law's (in Korea) - lightning fast internet speeds, with a creaking slow operating system full of bloatware.
My image of an IE6 user is a 50 year old housewife with a spyware-invested eMachines they bought in 2002. I'm sure in other countries this could be very different but that has been my experience in the US.
If you're targeting developers or technology/art/design/movie professionals Mac usage is way above 10%.
From ie6countdown.com, click the line graph icon: http://www.ie6countdown.com/#chart
Extrapolate the line on its current trend and IE6 will not be even 1% in 13 months time.
Why invest a significant effort when the market share will evaporate within the year?
Further, if your project is going to take time to get traction, it may be a reality that by the time you're done the world no longer cares.