You are absolutely right Niclo. And I'm really not accusing jakkwb of anything improper. I'm just suggesting that if his client was in fact running some warez, we might have saved some time and effort had we known. I think jakkwb probably didn't understand the situation. We've all been there. Tell a client we need to reinstall his software and listen to 45 minutes of him saying he isn't a thief and a pirate and do you actually have to buy software, isn't it free?
Personally, I always address this upfront as a worst case scenario. "If your hard drive explodes, I'll need your original media or your licenses to get replacements for you." As professionals, this is just one more thing of which we need to be aware.
Edit: The problem with dealing with thieves is that they'll steal from you as quickly as anyone. Just from a purely practical standpoint, there's no reason to do them a favor. It just marks you as a chump and a target.

