If they where never viewed as an alternative, (whether legitimately or not). Then it does not represent a lost sale. That is the problem with the lost sale doc

If they where never viewed as an alternative, (whether legitimately or not). Then it does not represent a lost sale. That is the problem with the lost sale doctrine, it supposes someones mind and intentions without any relevance to their perceptions. If the company or persons never saw the alternative as a legitimate choice then it was not a lost sale for the alternative vendor. While Pixelmator is a great tool, and I recommend it all the time as the best alternative to PS, it has not always existed. I think it hit the market around 07, meanwhile Photoshop was 82. There was a pretty long spread of pay or pirate between those dates because before Pixelmator there was no realistic alternative to Photoshop. As well there are still people that do not see it as an alternative. I want to be really clear on this though, I do not in any way condone piracy, I do not think it is justified. I was merely pointing out that some software piracy does lead to revenue for the Software vendor. And in some cases it is revenue that they would not have seen without the piracy and sometimes more than what they would have seen had the company paid for licenses up front.