Not meaning to break your conversation here but I think that the reason piracy isn't taken seriously by people (Well a majority of people) is that there are no real deterrents to make people stop.
Sure the companies or whatever can sue you, but how much can they get out of you? It'll cost more to sue you than what they'll get out of you it's not worth it and they don't want to look like the bad guys, who wants to buy the bad guys products? No one.
The best they can do is take on the pirate websites, eg Pirate Bay. But with the ever expanding internet when you take one down ten more will jump up to fill the gap.
But apparently not all piracy is bad piracy.
Wikipedia wrote:Traian Băsescu, the president of Romania, stated that "piracy helped the young generation discover computers. It set off the development of the IT industry in Romania."[8]
Microsoft admits that piracy of its Windows operating system has helped give it huge market share (90%) in China that will boost its revenues when these users "go legit." Bill Gates said, "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not."
Full thing here
As for DRM tech, I believe it's pointless the creators will have to constantly pump out newer and better technologies to keep up with all the people out there avoiding/reverse engineering it.
But thats my poorly written and researched opinion.