actually its pretty common knowledge that the cracking teams (at least the game iso ones) DO make money from dodgy sources... mostly its from dodgy asians (not trying to be racist or stereo typical.. im talking from first hand experience) buying cracks and iso's before the games were even released on the inet etc (pre-pre's).. as for the money making the way to the crackers, thats another story.. i know of some in other teams who got free laptops and hardware for their 'job' and others who got nothing, and did the cracking for the fun of it (and then got totally screwed in the process when the 'heat' came)... people DO make money from piracy, thats a common fact, from your street corner seller, your friend who burns copies for his mates at $5 or whatever, right the way up to the asians pressing silver cd's/dvd's and selling them as legit...
and erm, isnt this going off topic?
