Windows 7 might officially be just two days away from becoming available for purchase to customers worldwide, but fact is that the operating system is already available for free, almost free, or at a reduced price compared to what Microsoft is charging for the product. Pirated copies of the latest iteration of the Windows client are being sold for as low as $3 in Shanghai's Xinyang market, in China, according to Reuters. In this regard, it appears that the Redmond-based company will have just as hard a battle tackling piracy in China as it did with Windows Vista.

According to IDC, over 80% of the software sold in China in 2008 was pirated, and Microsoft’s products are among the most popular. A bootlegged copy of Windows 7 comes with a price tag as low as 20 yuan, or $2.93. The prices of genuine SKUs of Windows 7 start at $119.99 for the upgrade flavor of Home Premium, and go as high as $319.99 for the full retail Ultimate edition. As such, a retail license of Windows 7 Ultimate can cost as much as five times the amount of money a Chine student spends on a monthly basis to cover all expenses.

Price is, of course, the main barrier for users not just in China, but in additional developed markets, to when it comes down to buying genuine products. Customers are easy to turn to cheaper alternative offerings, even though they might be illegal, dubious in nature, or even harmful. Social poverty combined with the inability of authorities to crack down on the phenomenon have made piracy wide-spread and generalized to the point where people no longer perceive bootlegged software as illegal, but rather as an integral piece of their reality, that can only be embraced.

When it came down to Vista, Microsoft acknowledged the failure of the anti-piracy features built into the operating system, by resorting to consistent price cuts, over 50%, in a move designed to curb rampant piracy. With Windows 7, the company apparently plans to offer the low-end Home Basic edition of the operating system for just 399 yuan. Windows 7 Home Basic is a SKU which will only be made available to customers in emerging countries around the world.