I’m not sure what you do for a living, but imagine if your boss said he was going to cut your salary in half because there were enough people out there doing the work for free? Sure, maybe you’d find a new job in a different field, but you also might have a moment of resentment that after investing X amount of time and money on becoming qualified in your field, you suddenly find yourself struggling to survive.

This isn’t an us versus them issue. I think the debate gets framed that way because it makes it easier to feel better about pirating.

Obviously electronic distribution is the future, and to fight it is retarded. But you can’t fault a distributor who is trying to protect their investment of time and money they has put into a film.

For the filmmaker it is a different story–they get paid once the movie starts production. And if it is successful, and if they made a good deal, then perhaps they might make some additional money once it is released. But you can’t really champion Tommy’s position in this case as a demonstration of the righteousness of the piracy cause.

He already got paid.