Back when I was 12 to 16 yes lots. I didn't know any better back then, nor did I have any money to spend on games. I had never been in a shop that sold video games until I was 17. I can't remember ever seeing a c64 or amiga game in a shop.
Commodore 64 / msx games just copy the tape on a tape deck.
Amiga get together parties, to watch demos (homebrew if you like) and primarily exchange games.
Same for pc, lan parties weren't just to play games together. All you needed was a program to make an exact disk copy. Sometimes an extra loader program to 'unlock' the game.
We also used to copy movies, although we had to rent them first and then make a vhs to vhs copy to watch again later. (internet did not exist yet) Music either record it from the radio on a cassette tape or tape to tape copy from a friend.
At least with all these methods piracy was slowed down a bit by people actually having to get together first. Downloading a game from a bbs over a 9600 baud modem (1.2 KB/s) took forever.
I changed my ways when I got into university. I hope I have redeemed myself by now with over 500 games bought since. At least all the pirated games got me thoroughly addicted to gaming.
My apologies to Sid Meier for pirating the original Civilization. I hope buying every version since will make up for it :)
