Thomas,
Great question. It all depends on how good the crack to unlock the software, or the pirated version is at hiding from the vendor the fact that it is not licensed. I have seen some software work indefinitely, and I have seen others stop working almost immediately, or after a short period of time once a patch or update had been applied.
All vendors will apply patches to "legitimate" software, so the trick is to make the software appear to be legitimate so it fools the vendor's patching system into thinking it is legitimate software.
Microsoft does not bear any responsibility for patching any products other than their own, and as a result would not patch any third party software.
I hope that helps and answers your questions. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Cheers,
Adam
