> Fusion 360 is free for hobbiests. Not just students.
Fusion is a whole other ball of wax. I was referring to the rest of the Autodesk suite. You can certainly find cracked versions of whatever, but (ab)using the student licensing will at least be some insurance against malware.
The way I look at it (and I'm obviously not a representative of Autodesk in any way, shape, or form): if it's making you money, pay for it. If it's not, don't. If you pirate it to learn how to use it, that's one thing. If you wanted to start selling whatever you're designing that would be the time to pay.
Autodesk, like Adobe, is making a huge push towards subscription licensing. I detest that stuff, but it's at least less of a hit initially unlike IDA.
If I _wanted_ to be unethical, I could surely get anything I wanted.
I want to buy something and be in good standing to use it to perhaps build something to sell.