A funny story. When Bill Gates came to Romania to launch their Microsoft branch here, and before he gave his speech, the president (still in power now) made a "joke" about how pirating Windows has helped Romania tremendously in the IT sector over the years. I'm not a big fan of the president, but to say that before the founder of Microsoft and before a crowd (and on TV, too), takes a lot of guts.
or a lot of stupidity
Well, it's the unfortunate result of several trends colliding: little economic opportunity for the youth of the 'lost generations' of the '90s, a largely well educated population, leaning a lot towards technical subjects, cheap internet access, knowledge of the English language, and wide spread regard for laws as guides rather than rigid rules.