I understand that sharing video, photos, documents etc. is relatively safe because the data is not executed in the processor as instructions. How come people are willing to download and install pirated software though? How can one be confident that it does not contain malicious addons? Are people just don’t know the risks? Or are there protection mechanisms that I am missing? I mean since the software is usually cracked there is not much use in comparing checksums with the originals, is it?
If you get the software from reliable source, it is almost certain it does not have malware.
The piracy is an organized activity and people at higher rank nuke the release if it has malware.
Read more here https://opentrackers.org/i/2600_Guide_to_Internet_Piracy-TYDJ.txt
This. It feels more likely to get malware-infested downloads from no-name warez websites than trusted trackers.