I am going to be honest, I have pirated some games in the past. That being said there have been a lot of times I have pirated a game because it did not provide a sufficient demo for me to try before I buy it. If I enjoyed the game I will go buy the real game, and if I didn't enjoy it then I don't buy it.
I utilize a lot of the community created cracks, and have even done a few of my own because I hate it when a game requires a copy of the CD/DVD to be in the drive while I am playing. I shouldn't have to keep my discs all in a case near me, and have to get up (because my computer is not positioned to be easily accessible due to my space) and change the disc out if I have the game installed.
I am a developer and can appreciate the time and effort folks put into creating the software, which is why I use piracy as a sort of demo before I buy, instead of just using it as the way to obtain the whole game with no cost and not support the developers. At the same time I don't want to waste my money on a bad product.
MS Visio is an example of a non-game that I have used the same technique for. I used the visio knock-offs for a while but wanted to try the real thing so I pirated a copy of it, found I loved it and bought real version of it. Not all piracy is bad, and I would have never purchased visio unless it was bargain binned for a couple buck, if you know what I mean.
