Macromedia didn't mind the piracy at the time. People learned from pirated versions and then went to work in companies that bought licenses. They bootstrapped the company with that tactic. Same with Flash.
Not trying to make the piracy seem "right" or anything, but I would like to point out that I didn't make any money with the pirated Macromedia software either. I made a couple cartoons that got blammed on Newgrounds, did the examples in the Animator's Survival Kit, and then decided I'm not smart enough to be creative and did software instead.
I worked with Macromedia at the time and they were all for people pirating their software and actually listened to them talk about seeding their betas to pirates.
