When I was a teenager, and even when still in college, I had the same attitude, mainly because I had no money and I had lots of time (relatively speaking). Now

When I was a teenager, and even when still in college, I had the same attitude, mainly because I had no money and I had lots of time (relatively speaking). Now that I'm older I have a job, disposable income, and responsibilities that take up my time. I also have an appreciation for the work it takes to create anything of quality. So I am happy to give these people money if they satisfy a need I have and they satisfy it well. As a developer myself, I think it also has to do with the fact that I hope people have the same attitude towards my product and are willing to pay for my product if they find it useful to them. A similar example is music - I used to pirate 100% of it, but now that I understand that there is a person and a struggle behind each track, I happily purchase songs from iTunes and Amazon just to support the artist and keep them motivated to do more.