>For me personally, the biggest downside is that I don’t feel good about myself when I take things I know I don’t have the right to take. YMMV.
Once I put in enough work to both have some spare money in the bank and to empathize with the people who made the software and music I could so easily "just download", I had this transitionary period where, if I possessed a copy of something available commercially without having paid for it, and found that I enjoyed it enough to keep using it, I would buy a legitimate copy. For music, if I really liked it, I'd buy, for example, the deluxe vinyl edition - hopefully kicking some extra money over.
With software (including games, though it's rare that I play games) I'm now at the point where I won't give it a second thought, and will just pay for it. I bought an iPad app on sale, years before I had an iPad, knowing that one of these days I'd pick one up - it worked out.
Once I put in enough work to both have some spare money in the bank and to empathize with the people who made the software and music I could so easily "just download", I had this transitionary period where, if I possessed a copy of something available commercially without having paid for it, and found that I enjoyed it enough to keep using it, I would buy a legitimate copy. For music, if I really liked it, I'd buy, for example, the deluxe vinyl edition - hopefully kicking some extra money over.
With software (including games, though it's rare that I play games) I'm now at the point where I won't give it a second thought, and will just pay for it. I bought an iPad app on sale, years before I had an iPad, knowing that one of these days I'd pick one up - it worked out.