Lol, no, pirates dont pay for anything. The cracking community is almost entirely clout based, its just for the bragging rights of being the smartest programmer out there.
Empress is an anomaly, and I dont actually think shes ever been paid her obnoxious “fee.” And even she is only claiming a fee for the clout, as a way to say “no one else can do what I do so its pay up or fuck off”