Pirated software is usually pretty easy to detect. - The price is usually way too good to be true, typically less than half the normal retail price. - If someone in a store offers you a great deal and installs the software by copying it from another system, it is pirated. - Any piece of spam that advertises great deals on software is either advertising pirated software or partially-crippled software that is normally bundled on packaged systems and has been copied by the seller. It begs the question: who in their right mind would buy something from a 'business' that provides no return address, sends e-mails to 'occupant', and misspells words in the subject line. - If the software is received on a CD-R, particularly if it lacks a professional label, chances are it is pirated. - If the software does not come in a professional-looking printed box, it is likely pirated unless it was purchased from a fairly small-scale company. - Some companies use holographic tags on the boxes their software comes in. Software pirates may print look-alike tags, but they will not be holographic. - If the software requires a key, it should be printed on a card, the box, or the CD envelope, supplied by e-mail, or downloaded on-line with proper verification.