Fair enough Mr. M, but please consider that I am speaking specifically within the context of beta builds of windows 7, that Microsoft, although silent on the subject, are definitely complicit and complying within the context of torrent downloads.
I could point you to MS owned chat forums wherein MS staff are discussing the merit of this & that in build 7068 etc. But you knew that right?
SD & anyone reading this, I am not advocating the illegal downloading of copyrighted software, merely reflecting upon the existence of routes to constituency that ms have used to evaluate non saleable beta versions of products for the purposes of tesrting, evaluation & feedback. Hell it says so all over the desktop!