To be fair,
he lives in a country where heavy taxation means games get there at around $150 US dollars. If he grew up thinking that videogames are excessively expensive, and is not really informed about who gets the money and why of course he is going to think "fuck them". The same way you don't like stealing from people, I believe many gamers don't like to feel robbed by game sellers/the game industry.
While I'll never defend piracy, many companies are not really smart about handling piracy because they immediately dismiss all pirates as thieves and not the potential buyers some are, given smart and proper support.