I was born in 86 and started to use the internet in 1998 on a 56k modem. First thing I learned was how to join IRC, Usenet and later napster/dc++/torrent to download and use cracked software and copy games from my uncle and use no d-keys.

It helped me to become fluent in early animation in Macromedia flash, photo editing in Adobe products and html in Dreamweaver and Frontpage or music production with the earliest versions of pro tools and cubase.

All long gone and failed tech, but since then I was able to pursue a career in IT and ever since using proper licensing for those enterprise products we use at all those projects. (btw circumventing and copying is legal in Switzerland for private use)

I don't think kids should get a free pass to pirate software but software houses should be a bit smarter and make this software available to the youth for free. They will mostly become lucrative clients in the future.