MAGGIE: Piracy is not just a phenomena in undeveloped markets. It is actually a problem in our home market in the United States.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Maggie Sanchez is Microsoft's General Manager for the Windows client business in the U.S.

MAGGIE: Software piracy is really about misuse at the end of the day. It's the perfect word to encapsulate what software piracy is. It's about the illegal sale and distribution of software. The piracy problem in small business is actually larger than the broader piracy problem across all business segments. It is approximately 1 in 5 of all PCs are pirated and for small business it is slightly higher than that. So it is a very significant problem.

GEORGE: Just as they wouldn't want the product or service they offer to be taken from them they shouldn't be taking other people's software. You really can't say anything beyond that--at that level. That's not even a creativity issue. It's just basic business ethics.

HATTIE: Why do you think people do it? Steal software -- I mean adults who are trying to run a business?

GEORGE: Probably because it's easy to do.

MARK: As an adult, if you're running a business, ask yourself when you do something, would I want my mother and father to know what I am doing. Or, as a parent, can I go home at night and tell my kids what I did today? Am I proud of it? In terms of intellectual property as well, if you can't, I suggest you don't do it. If you feel comfortable going home and saying to your kids, what did I do today? Well, I stole a couple things from Microsoft and I took some stuff from Oracle. Stole a movie or two. You don't want to go home and tell your kids. You don't want to tell your spouse. You don't want to tell your parents.

MAGGIE: As a matter of fact, many small business owners are unaware. They do not know that they are using pirated software. Which is why I said earlier, one of the key pillars is to educate as much as possible. Microsoft has a new program called The Windows Genuine Advantage which is all about providing small business customers with tools to determine if they have genuine software or not. It is a "how to tell" program.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Bob runs his office on Microsoft and he showed us how microsoft.com/genuine quickly validated his system. In the Microsoft lab, I tested a computer that did not have authentic software. This is what you'll see if your software is not genuine.

MAGGIE: There have been millions and millions of users that have validated during the course of the past few months. On average we're seeing about 350,000 validations per day. So we're really excited by the response and encourage every small business owner to go Microsoft.com/genuine and validate today.