I can assure you that it is true in my country (England).
http://www.drukker.co.uk/publication...rden-of-proof/
http://www.findlaw.co.uk/law/dispute...al/500248.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_burden_of_proof
etc...

Yes - but that is beside the point (The reasoning of whether copyright infringers would of bought it if the pirated version wasn't available is not a easy question to answer)
I am saying windows effectively creates users who infringe copyright like this.

I think if you ask someone point blank, is stealing (or copying) programs that others wrote & charge for... wrong?
I think most would say yes.

But necessity trumps morals, causing you to copyright infringe on software X from torrent x.torrent
You need it now, and x.torrent will get it to you now, for free.
But then, come to free and open software and suddenly, everything is free. You are encouraged to download. Something going wrong? Ask for help, submit a bug report.
Why "pirate" libreoffice? I've actually seen versions of libreoffice on torrent sites. It's just the way to do things. Someone says you can get libreoffice for free, obviously the place to check is torrent site X. When I was new to Linux, this was the way I saw free software.

Maybe there are a lot more users out there wanting a free software type of world, rather then a proprietary one.
Claiming windows & various other proprietary products are a better way of doing things and intentionally violating that exact model simply makes no sense.
(Since this is obviously a *nix site, I'm referring to claims made like this from other locations)

Just because something is on a torrent site doesn't mean it's being "pirated". Lots of open source software is shared through P2P sites to reduce bandwidth for the organization who wrote the software. I share Linux iso files through P2P sites. P2P sites themselves are not illegal, as they don't actually host any of the content shared through them.

replica9000 beat me to it. But he is correct.
There is nothing illegal about bittorrent even if it is often used as such.

Lots of large open source projects are available by bit torrent to save server load

I know not all torrents are sources of copyrighted content.
My point isn't "torrents are evil". Copyright infringment can occur just as easily by sending a file over email.

The fact that everyone can see your IP when you use Bittorrent means that although it is used for piracy, it's also a great way to catch pirates.

Except in most cases, an IP cannot be tied to one user

In my experience it usually can. Since "broadband" took over from dial-up I have found that friends and I tend to have the same IP address assigned for a very long time
You have reminded me to check whether my phone is also allocated the same IP address most of the time.

It often stays the same for a while. But that doesn't mean that it will be the same.
It CAN change which means it isn't a reliable user binding

Mine has been the same for years. I think to claim otherwise is being a little disingenuous.

Years?? Mine has changed no less than 5 times in 2014

Most torrent clients also have an option to mask or spoof the IP. My IP address usually doesn't change unless I need to restart my modem. Even if it were to change frequently, I'm sure the ISP has a record of who had what IP at what time.

Yes, I think it changed recently when the new router was installed but, before that, I think it was the same for over 5 years.
Certainly, as replica9000 mentions, most modern ISPs will know exactly which customer used which IP when.

I don't pirate. Period.

Actually, I sell a piece of software ... and I am perfectly well aware that it gets pirated sometimes. But, frankly, I don't think that pirating occurs nearly as often as you might think. If the product is "for sale," and it's a good product, then I find that people will quite willingly pony-up the money to pay their way. (And, when the product is not "for sale," but the site offers a way to contribute, you'll be pleasantly surprised at just how many contributions come pour in.)

People generally understand that this stuff's not free, and if they're using the stuff in a business it's all just a (fully deductible) business expense. You buy the office coffee-pot, the computers, and the software. Keep the receipts ...

"Back in the day" (the early 90's), I actually worked at a software company that got raided for unlicensed copies of Word Perfect. The Federal Marshals were very polite, and unarmed. But it was also clear that it was just a pissing-contest between a vice-president and a former-veep who recently had been let go under not-so-nice terms and who knew where the skeletons were buried. A few thousand dollars in penalties were assessed ... basically, the company had to pay for all the copies that were found ... and that was that. (And of course, where is Word Perfect Corporation today? Microsoft was much more agreeable, much easier to do business with, and their product became better.)

I found this old article on how MS feels about piracy or pirating

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/apr...i-micropiracy9

If I'm reading between the lines correctly, I guess MS would rather have us pirate a copy of windows than going to linux.

Personally, I don't want any copy of windows OS or window's office programs whether it's free, paid, bittorrented or whichever.