Yeah, I think most people probably started out with cracked copies of programs and then started to buy them for stability and updates, etc. I usually buy one or two pieces of kit every month, sometimes it's software, sometimes it's not. But the stuff starts to accumulate after a while.

Most recent addition: Drumkit from Hell Superior. Oh jesus that's some good shit...

With regard to some of the `cracked version` comments above I think that a certain amount of people will try a full version `cracked` over a demo version from the official website.
Usually the demos are too crippled to allow full time limited use of the software. Many people have to make very tough decisions with respect to `which software?` or `which version?` etc and demo versions often dont really allow full exploration of the differences in versions.
What i`m saying is that for most people that are thinking about spending up to ?500 on a piece of software will surely want to make sure they`re making the right choice, so for that reason i cant blame anyone for doing this.

However, I agree that the price of quality software for pro audio use is pushed up condsiderably by the amount of pirate copies available on the net. Catch 22 really :-(

And yes, you knew this was coming lol . I too, like some of the previous posts suggest had the odd cracked version. Purely cos I`m a hardware purist and doubted that software could ever come close. First try was reason.... Gah give me Octamed or protracker over that cr.. anytime.
No seriously, I ditched it within a week and then purchased a legit copy of Cubase SX to replace my cracked version of that.