A lot of technologies started out as pirate technologies.
Cable TV? The first people who started shoving TV over cables into people’s homes didn’t ask for permission. But now that’s such a normal thing that we can’t imagine it having been infringement at one point.
Player piano rolls too. No permission was sought and its legality wasn’t figured out until they got sued. (And the courts decided that a royalty to the composers or rights holders was in order, and the courts set the going royalties rate in cents per roll, but they also decided the composers/rights holders couldn’t deny any player piano roll maker the right to make player piano rolls of their songs.)
But then things shifted and now the courts are owned by Disney.