Just to add a thought: big film studios screw over the VFX artists all the time. There are stories of a movie winning "Best Visual Effects" award and the VFX house that actually did all the hard work going bankrupt because they didn't get paid enough by the big studio to make ends meet. IIRC, Life of Pi was one such occasion. Isn't that piracy, too: owner class stealing labor from working class.

One could possibly argue that piracy is the inevitable product—nay, an honoured practice—of capitalism because it all boils down to exploiting someone's labor for your own benefit without fair compensation for the laborer. Big corporations exploit 3rd world countries to get their resources for as cheap as possible; pirates exploit movie, film and game studios to get their entertainment for as cheap as possible. Circle of life; business as usual🙃

[–] 00@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Isn't that piracy, too: owner class stealing labor from working class.

Wage theft is actually by far the biggest kind of theft in the US, and film studios and game studios are well known culprits. And piracy has absolutely zero impact on that wage theft. You make a good argument.