I was forced away from using UBB.classic due to the heavy load on servers, it got to the point where I couldn't find anyone to host my 150 member message board which was quite sad really..
I pirated vB around the 2.2.4 days and didn't like it - I never actually opened the board to anyone.. Though when I was told that vB3 was in development by a friend and it would be the best thing since sliced bread, well - I gave it another chance at about 2.2.7 (I think) and asked a client for a leased vB license as payment for some perl based work I did for them instead of paying me direct. I didn't have a PayPal account back in those days..
I haven't looked back since, and I now own an owned license of my very own..