If I leave my door unlocked and theives come through and steal my stuff, that's not right, but there is no consequence of it being illegal unless they get caught. Part of the blame, however, has to lie with me for not taking sufficient responsibility for securing my possesions. While it's nearly impossible to be 100% theft-proof (if a thief wants in badly enough, a way will be found), that number can be somewhere around 98% or 99% with the right approach. If I don't take the steps, then I might have to pay the price.
So it is with software. It might not be possible to create software that's 100% piracy-proof, but there are ways of reducing probably well over 90% of the piracy. Now if a software developer doesn't take the steps to implement adequate protection schemes, that doesn't make it acceptable for someone to illegally obtain their software, but they must share some of the blame for not taking advantage of what measures are available.
Personally, I do not engage in piracy, in the sense that I make a company's software freely available to others, but if I run across a nice and useful app, and I can by some means get around the trial limit or whatever, I might do it. If the value of that software justifies its price, I'll buy it; if not, I'll find a way around the trial limit, if there is one. I don't sell it, I don't distribute it, I don't do anything with it that makes me money, but that doesn't mean it's totally right. I also don't buy blackmarket copies or get software from warez sites; I download it from either the publisher's own site or one of the many legit download sites. I look at it like this; whatever is on MY computer is MINE to manipulate as I please. If you don't want me using it beyond some trial limit, then build some protection into it.
As a final word, I don't think not being able to afford software or the fact that the company is making a killing from their software justifies mass contrabanding. At the same time, I admit that I genuinely don't have a problem using (for personal, non-profitable use) any software made available to me by a publisher, for any purpose I choose.
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