You can mark the beginning of the modern software industry in the mid-70s, with the launch of the Apple II, TRS-80, and various CPM systems as coterminous with the dawn of software piracy. Copying software san license, permission, and payment has always been prevalent and ubiquitous in the business, with far more copies of MS DOS, WordStar, Lotus 123, and dBase II in use than were ever sold. The software industry’s public reaction to piracy has always been one of outrage and dismay,  Of course, as we wrote in In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters