Microsoft claimed on Monday that it was forced to change the way it enforces its software licensing, after detecting evidence of widespread use of unlicensed copies of Office.
As many as a third of Office packages in the UK could be unlicensed, the software giant said. Global figures were not available at the time of writing.
The figures came from Michala Alexander, Microsoft's head of anti-piracy, who told ZDNet UK that the figure of 33 percent was a very high percentage when the Business Software Alliance (BSA) figure for all software is 27 percent.
As of Friday, users can't download Office Online templates from within Microsoft Office System 2007 applications without first proving that they are using a licensed copy of Office.
Microsoft is also planning further measures -- from January 2007, Office Update also must be validated by Office Genuine Advantage (OGA). The OGA scheme was introduced in April as a pilot.
But Alexander insisted that the changes would not mean that users could lose the functions within Office.
"They only apply to updates and templates and everybody will be able to use Office."
Alexander said she could not say what percentage of people used Office templates but agreed it was "probably quite a lot".
Colin Barker reported for ZDNet UK from London
When you look at the price for MS Office, it's almost no wonder that many small businesses pirate Office. I've even seen many larger companies baulk at the cost. If MS sold Office for the $100 - $200 it's actually worth, i believe that many more companies would buy legit companies. MS is currently releasing heaps of server based products as part of the "Office System" to encourage enterprises to buy Office 2007. Without this incentive, i doubt many would, simply as the cost for such a minor upgrade (ignoring the UI changes as these will actually cost the business money intitally in user training and loss of productivity) is totally out of whack when compared to other line of bus apps.