Adobe does offer academic (student) versions of their software. They are usually around half the price of the normal, commercial, versions, but can't be upgraded.
Adobe knows very well that lots of people use pirated software, but they also have a ton of paying customers. They've already lowered prices and no doubt will continuing doing so in the future, but if they lower it to under $100 "just to make something", they'll lose significant profit from those customers who are willing to pay the current prices.
Having said that, Adobe's applications are nothing to sneeze at and require a lot of development time (ie. money) and their current prices are fairly reasonable for people who make a living from their applications, at least in my opinion.
For example, I know a photographer who starts at $1,500 per job. Something like CS3 Design Premium is probably more than enough for him and costs $1,799 (Standard edition is $1,199, upgrades are even cheaper). So basically in 1 or 2 jobs he covered the price and can now reap the rewards of the full Adobe system (speed, productivity, new features, etc. whatever). So I think for him not to have legit software that he NEEDS to make profit is inexcusable.
Again, I'm not talking about your average user who in all reality doesn't need full Photoshop to start with, that's what Elements is for, or GIMP, or Paint.net or whatever.
