I started using mIRC as a teenager, I had almost no money so used pirated versions. Many years later, since the program gave me many hours of enjoyment (and through it I had the first conversations the person who is now my wife, no less!), I bought a couple of licenses because I felt I owed it to the devs.
I don't regret doing that, of course... but there's no way I'll be renewing my lifetime licenses. The contract I signed gave me a lifetime right to use the software so my understanding is that if the dev wants to remove that right from me, it's completely legitimate to resort to piracy, and I doubt a court could say otherwise.
I started using mIRC as a teenager, I had almost no money so used pirated versions. Many years later, since the program gave me many hours of enjoyment (and through it I had the first conversations the person who is now my wife, no less!), I bought a couple of licenses because I felt I owed it to the devs.
I don't regret doing that, of course... but there's no way I'll be renewing my lifetime licenses. The contract I signed gave me a lifetime right to use the software so my understanding is that if the dev wants to remove that right from me, it's completely legitimate to resort to piracy, and I doubt a court could say otherwise.