I'm throwing personal opinions below this paragraph. They dont reflect on TPU at all, and i'll still go deleting posts that mention 'piracy' otuside of this thread.
I personally, have torrented lots of 'pirated' material. I will give very valid reasons as to why.
1. You can not return games to stores in Australia, despite being able to do so with console games. While i'm techie enough to make any game WORK, there is nothing worse than paying $120 (yes, some games here are that expensive) only to find you aboslutely hate the game.
Its not like there is man demos these days - find me one for forged alliance, opposing fronts, tales of valor - oh wait those are expansion packs. how am i meant to know if i like them, if the ONLY option is to buy? (i love em and own em all legit, its an example). Then theres actuall full games - crysis, far cry 2, fallout 2 - all big hits, no demos i've come across. Imagine how the average joe feels with his dell - no idea if it will work, and no refund it if doesnt.
2. Some games are not available here anymore. Cant find them locally or online - an example is jagged alliance 2. I own all the JA games, but no matter what i did i couldnt buy the expansion pack for JA2 - so i downloaded it. It didnt run properly since i was on vista64, so i saved myself the money of buying it and having it not run.
Movies/TV shows/anime.
Anime: i'm not waiting 5 years for the shows to turn up here butchered with scenes missing, and terrible translations when i half speak japanese as it is. Its no different to watching em on TV in japan and having a TiVo, is it? If it was available for cheap download like they are doing in the USA with naruto at the moment, i would pay for them. If people can do it for free, a company can do it for $1 a download, etc.
Movies: Once a movies no longer at the local cinema, i have no real option but to wait til its available for sale or rental. In the meantime i download 700MB copies of a movie and see if i like it. if i dont, i delete it. If i do, as soon as its available on DVD i buy it.
TV shows. i can watch it for free here and record it on TiVo, or with my TV tuner card... how is it any different to torrent it? i'm not getting ads, but with a TiVo or a TV tuner with modern software they get cut out anyway.
Yes what i do technically breaks certain laws... but if there are everyday practices that have happened for decades with no legal retribution such as recording radio to cassette, TV to VHS, CD to MP3, TiVo, HDTV tuner cards and so on then there is legal grounds for me to say "hey - i am allowed to do this too"