As is stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, evil is never morally acceptable. But, the culpability can depend on the circumstances and intention of the act.

However, your concerns are represented by on another qualifier found in the CCC: Some actions that can appear to be theft are not true theft.

The seventh commandment forbids theft, that is, usurping another’s property against the reasonable will of the owner. There is no theft if consent can be presumed or if refusal is contrary to reason and the universal destination of goods. This is the case in obvious and urgent necessity when the only way to provide for immediate, essential needs (food, shelter, clothing... ) is to put at one’s disposal and use the property of others. CCC 2408.

Whether there exists anyone in a circumstance wherein digital piracy is that person's only practical means of survival, or wherein the IP owner would knowingly consent, or wherein refusal would be contrary to reason or the universal destinations of goods ¹, I couldn't definitively say. But, I would stress the importance of making such a decision, especially as the "pirate", with an informed conscience.

^{1. The goods of creation are destined for the entire human race to enjoy and be stewards of. Ownership of private property must be subordinate or in service to the common good of all.}

The Catechism is explicit.

1754 The circumstances, including the consequences, are secondary elements of a moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral goodness or evil of human acts (for example, the amount of a theft). They can also diminish or increase the agent's responsibility (such as acting out of a fear of death). Circumstances of themselves cannot change the moral quality of acts themselves; they can make neither good nor right an action that is in itself evil.

1756 It is an error to judge the morality of human acts by considering only the intention that inspires them or the circumstances (environment, social pressure, duress or emergency, etc.) which supply their context. There are acts which, in and of themselves, independently of circumstances and intentions, are always gravely illicit by reason of their object; such as blasphemy and perjury, murder and adultery. One may not do evil so that good may result from it.

Theft of food in order to sustain life is not a moral act and cannot be justified by circumstances, even though responsibility might be diminished by starvation. That is, although the act is wrong, culpability is reduced and punishment might be mitigated because of the extreme circumstances.

"Piracy of information and media" is not essential to the preservation of life.

Moral Theology

Moral theologians treat copyright (authors' rights) when discussing contracts.
Prümmer, O.P., Manuale Theologiæ Moralis, PDF pp. 529-30 (§§8-9) on © (ius auctoris):

All teach, indeed, that it is pure and putrid theft if one secretly steals other manuscripts, artifacts, or artifacts not yet published, because the legitimate owner is reasonably unwilling on account of the serious damage and serious injury inflicted on him. But when the manuscript is already printed, or if the invention (commonly known as a Patent) has already been divulged, theologians debate whether a new printed book without the author's permission or an imitation of the invention is contrary to natural law and there be an obligation for restitution. Some deny it, because once the work has been divulged, it has become the common good, which can be lawfully occupied by all [cf. esp. Bucceroni, Theol. mor. I, n. 878; somewhat Morres, De iust. I, n. 24; Vermeersch, De iust. n. 246 sqq.]; but the more general and truer opinion affirms it, with the restrictions indicated by the positive law.

^{Omnes quidem docent, esse purum putidumque furtum, si quis clam alteri surripit manuscripta aut artifacta aut inventa nondum publici iuris facta, quia legitimus dominus est rationabiliter invitus propter grave damnum et gravem iniuriam ipsi illatam. Sed quando manuscriptum iam est typis impressum, aut si inventum (vulgo Patent) iam est divulgatum, disputant theologi, num nova impressio libri sine licentia auctoris facta vel imitatio inventi sit contra ius naturale et ad restitutionem obliget. Nonnulli negant, quia opus semel evulgatum iam fit bonum commune, quod ab omnibus licite occupari potest [Ita præsertim. Bucceroni, Theol. mor. I, n. 878; aliqualiter etiam Morres, De iust. I, n. 24; Vermeersch, De iust. n. 246 sqq.]; sed communior et verior sententia affirmat, cum restrictionibus tamen a lege positiva indicatis.}

St. Augustine, De doctrina Christiana bk. 1, ch. 1:

For a possession which is not diminished by being shared with others, if it is possessed and not shared, is not yet possessed as it ought to be possessed.

^{cf. Willinsky p. 82}

To Sell is to Transfer Full Ownership

These anti-piracy laws seems to oppose private ownership / private property.

If I buy a CD, I should be able to copy it, lend it, etc., because I own it.

To charge the owner extra to use something he owns or to charge for how he uses it is a form of usury, which the Church has always condemned (cf. Pope Benedict XIV's Vix Pervenit), because usury "is to sell what does not exist" (St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica II-II q. 78 a. 1 c.).

Another question is: Is "intellectual property" even property? N. Stephan Kinsella's Against Intellectual Property (free audiobook) is an excellent treatment of this and related moral questions.

A Doubtful Law does not Bind

The Internet's Own Boy—the free documentary on Aaron Swartz,* who was famously (some contend unjustly) prosecuted for automating the downloads of thousands and thousands of articles from JSTOR, using MIT's subscription—begins with this quote that is reminiscent of the Catholic moral principle "lex dubia non obligat" ("an unclear law does not bind"):

Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?
—Henry David Thoreau

_{*Swartz, who died at 24 years old, was the driving force behind the creation of RSS, OpenLibrary, Internet Archive, Reddit, and Creative Commons licensing. He even had a project that aimed to make all court records available online.}

U.S. Civil Law

In U.S. civil law, "Feist Publication, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340, 349-50 (1991) (citations omitted)" gives the purpose of ©:

The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors, but [t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts. To this end, copyright assures authors the right to their original expression, but encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work. This result is neither unfair nor unfortunate. It is the means by which copyright advances the progress of science and art.

Related to U.S. law not considering copyright infringement theft is Stephan N. Kinsella's argument in Against Intellectual Property that IP is not property because property rights only apply to scarce resources:

But surely it is clear, given the origin, justification, and function of property rights, that they are applicable only to scarce resources. Were we in a Garden of Eden where land and other goods were infinitely abundant, there would be no scarcity and, therefore, no need for property rules; property concepts would be meaningless. The idea of conflict, and the idea of rights, would not even arise. For example, your taking my lawnmower would not really deprive me of it if I could conjure up another in the blink of an eye. Lawnmower-taking in these circumstances would not be “theft.” Property rights are not applicable to things of infinite abundance, because there cannot be conflict over such things.

This is similar to the argument Aaron Swartz gave in his short article "Downloading isn't Stealing."

Epikeia (legal equity)

Also, the internet and ease of sharing information was unknown when © law was first developed (cf. the Google TechTalk The Surprising History of Copyright…), so the virtue of epikeia (against legal pharisaism) must be applied here. Summa Theologica II-II q. 120 a. 1 ad 1: "it is written in the Codex of Laws and Constitutions under Law v: 'Without doubt he transgresses the law who by adhering to the letter of the law strives to defeat the intention of the lawgiver.'" The intention of the law is "not to reward the labor of authors, but [t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" (quoted above), not restrict the sharing of knowledge.