The law on that point is muddy. A friend of mine actually called an IP lawyer and asked whether he could legally download and play an mp3 of tracks he has only on vinyl or tape (he doesn't own a rig to convert those to mp3 himself).
The lawyer told him it would be legal as he has a right to listen to that music.
Whether that would extend to dubbed versions of material I don't know (nor whether it would apply to any other country).
Personally I would never do anything to give the slightest hint of legallity to pirates, which downloading their products comes down to.
So no cracks (even if I own the actual product), no downloaded mp3 from pirate sites so I don't have to rip the CD to my iPod myself, no downloaded CD images if an installation disk gets damaged (any decent manufacturer will supply a replacement at cost of S&H or even for free, I've done that multiple times), etc.
And no, I've not used a single pirated program or had a single bit of pirated music or film on my systems in something like 15 years now. Not in fact since the first software stores opened in the city I then lived (giving me an idea of the actual cost of the stuff), enabling me to purchase software rather than get it through the old boys network which at the time meant swapping floppy disks around and hoping they weren't infected with bootsector virusses.