Several tricks (copy also more than allowed track nubmers etc)

come in with your original. come back in one hour. you get the original and  the cracked game back on floppy disc.

You paid and got every month new software by post.

With modems1987  and zterm you could enter to a bbs and download software. You needed the number and of course a computer on the other side. So this bullet boards system where dial in systems. from time to time the mother of a guy took the phone .-) 

You only used this in the ‘phone cheap time’ - >21.00. A game for Amiga or Atari ST was 900kb - the modem was about 3600-12200 bauds. you waited very long from time to time.

Serial number collections were often databases as a program for serial numbers. 

a lot of pirated software was uploaded on bbs, afterwareds on ftp-servers in companies or universities. the most crackergroup had warez servers. often the name of the folders were appz / warez / gamez.

peer to peer enabled looking into private collections alias folders-structures and content. so you could really look into personal data, ideas, rhizomes. you find very personal stuff. the copyright debate around mp3 destroyed this possibilities in those time - as it seems forever.