Waves has been roundly disliked for their WUP policy, which was horrendously bad business, IMO. After some intervention by a PSW member, it was made less draconian, but I find it unfriendly enough that I will not buy their products, and I discourage those who seek my advice, based solely on the WUP situation.
I have no problem with their software, but when I have to pay somebody money to make something compatible, not for new features, I find it bad customer service. They are not the only company. This happened with Sonnox, too, but Waves embodies this practice for me. And then when I had an iLock go bad, the only company where it was a pain in the ass to get my licenses off was Waves.
In terms of what happened at Skyline, their were some tactics on Waves part that showed them to be a little too eager to seek a legal remedy. I can't even imagine Microsoft sending people in with hidden cameras to get people to show them their cracked software.