That's interesting, considering how many independent studies have found that piracy increases sales. There are still a number of 'excuses' to pirate. 1. People who simply can't afford it. Some people are poor. They wouldn't be buying it anyway, they're not lost sales. 2. Region nonsense. We've all seen videos 'not available in your country.' I listen to both German and Japanese music – both of which are very difficult to find in my country. If someone pirates something which isn't possible to purchase, it's not a lost sale. Well, it is, but it was lost anyway. Due to stupidity. 3. DRM. DRM makes legally purchased content difficult or impossible to consume. My personal preference would be to purchase, then 'pirate' the DRM-free version, which would not be a lost sale. And which ought to be legal, if I have a license to consume. But it's not. Layers of stupidity. 4. It's not stealing. It's copyright infringement. It is neither legally nor morally stealing. You're not allowed to call it that until you stop claiming $22,500 per song in damages. Neither are you allowed to preach to me about morality, until you cease ruining entire families' lives over $1 songs.
I agree that there are reasons why someone would want to pirate something, but at the same time, I do think that people try to justify what they're doing, even if they know it's bad. Your reasons are all good, but you can't deny that there are people out there that don't need to pirate, but reason their way into a moral white area regardless.
Except noncommercial copyright infringment isn't bad, as the study rob05c linked and many others have shown. It's just the industry being paranoid and wanting control for its own sake. What would actually hurt sales is people abandoning "their" commercial culture in favor of free and open culture.