Piracy is not illegal where I live - never has been, so I don't really know how I "feel" about pirated software. Everybody here pirates software from left to right, and it's as normal as picking up money from the ground if happen to see it.
That said, I do pay for software I can't live without.
5 to 7 years. I can't remember exactly, but I was around 14-15 when I started (21 now). I lived at a country side with no internet, but I had a PC that ran floppy disks (yay Liero). So one day I was extremely bored and figured I just click around and stuff, that is till I clicked Internet Explorer and lo' behold the "No internet connection" page came up. While I assume any other person would close the browser and be done with it, I was curious to how that page knew to be there - or how was it even made.
Fast forward a lot, I make stuff on the web every day for a living. No regrets.
That said, I do pay for software I can't live without.