Tell me about it.. I mean they are promoting piracy by inflating prices..

They can blame the internet for piracy all they want, but if the prices were reasonable, then most people would purchase rather than download the software.

And if you think about it, does Microsoft really need to save money? I just checked the 2002 net worth in shares of Microsoft stock, $313 Billion US dollars:

Microsoft has a total of 10,700,000,000 shares outstanding, worth a total of $313,071,300,000, which is Microsoft's market capitalization. (That's $313.07 Billion.)

That is just in shares.. that doesn't include property rights, sales, buildings, property ownerships, etc...

I am sure they can afford to give away these free services for 1000 years and not hurt their profitability one iota.