They fight pirating, and that prevents it from becoming absolutely endemic, but they don’t really lose massive amounts of sleep over the cracks, because every cracked copy is training people to use their software.
Sort of “The Old Dope Peddler” model.
It’s not really correct to assume every cracked copy is a lost sale.
Instead, think of it as indoctrination of possible future sales.
This worked especially well with (I think) US government agencies who can in theory be fined for every time the software was activated.
Then, cracked software becomes free advertising!
I've always thought this was kind of an old wives' tale FUD. Long time back when I used to hoist the ol Jolly Roger, the pirated versions of software seemed to always be pristine copies. Reputable release groups had their reputation in mind and would go out of their way to release clean copies, or even go so far as to remove the official company-shipped malware like all those offers you used to get during install to Also Get This Toolbar! Reputable crack groups were the same way--leave no trace and use the smallest, most minimal binary modification possible.
Same with pirated movies: The pirate releases are often better than the official releases, containing more subtitle languages, stripping off marketing and FBI warnings, and so on.
If you don't activate Windows 10, you have no ability to personalize your PC (change wallpaper, colors, Lock Screen image, etc.) But you can still use it - which makes it annoying, but still functional.
After a few weeks without activating, it also adds an always-visible watermark warning to "Activate your PC." But it still lets you use it.
Perhaps the OP could do similar. Where... he has his standard system of copy protection, but then adds additional checks that stamp watermarks on printed documents, or show a watermark about illegal copy, doesn't allow adding business information to documents, so forth...
Maybe that's even the trial version. Always free, forever - but certain features disabled and lots of watermarks.
All you will do is annoy legitimate users.
You can totally do that when you're Microsoft because pretty much everybody hates you already but you have essentially a monopoly so what can they do? But it's very different when you're in a market where alternatives exist.
The downside is, people who would have paid might discover they're quite happy with the trial version.
Of course, they'll probably re-hack it at that point, but often the first hacked version ends up being the most spread around one.
Do it silently and maybe warn in a non-obvious way. But I wouldn't annoy the user too much
Parent is right, most of those pirating it wouldn't have bought it in the first place. Especially if it's a technical software with limited use (as opposed to a game, for example)
you are not gonna guilt anyone into not pirating and if the message blocks or is annoying, crackers are gonna circumvent it just like they did the license check.
Pretty bad when the pirated versions of your software work better than the legit copy.
Microsoft has bribed their way into having power of police in Argentina.
the can legally obligate you to give them a report of how many computers and what operating systems you are using and they can request a judge's order to enter your company with the police to audit your infrastructure if they think you are not telling them the truth.
I they will do this kind of stuff without fear of losing face I don't think they will care if some legit customer gets hit by a false positive.