i'm a longtime lurker and sometimes poster that made a new account to ask this. my partner, i, and my friend group recently got into an emotional argument about piracy recently. one of my friend group was casually offering to pirate a movie for my partner who was looking at movies to buy on a videogame console storefront, and my partner took it very, very personally for reasons i don't entirely understand. my partner called us all disgusting and entitled and said we didn't value art, and made it really personal saying they would be heartbroken if the managed to make an indie movie and nobody would pay for it. the rest of us were very hurt and offended at being called entitled and being accused of not valuing art. my partner refused to even hear us out, saying that neither side could possibly change their mind and that we should never talk about it again and that they regret being open about their feelings, which makes me very sad. i want them to be open and honest. but i think they have media industry brainworms really bad and i don't know what to do. i guess i'm looking for advice or sources on what impact piracy actually has on artists, especially new or emerging artists. i feel like my partner's fixation on the economic aspect of art devalues art and humanity. i obviously think artists deserve to have their needs met, i think everyone does. but i'm not going to cry about christopher nolan making less money than he hypothetically might have, even indie artists i dont think deserve more money than others just because they are lucky enough to be doing what they love instead of a fucking miserable minimum wage daily grind soulcrush. i don't know how to handle this situation, i love my partner very much but this seems like a serious difference in values and perspective regarding the media industry that could have implications for how we see the world in other more important ways. my partner referred to youtube as this shining beacon of open platform content creation, just pure myopic bullshit ideology, it disgusts me to see my partner a victim to those idealistic brainworms. i don't know what to do. i'm worried this conflict will reopen down the road. sorry if this is the wrong comm or anything. i probably need relationship advice just as much as piracy advocate resources and/or relevant theory.
Your partner has real hall monitor/narc energy. I am at a loss of coming up with some stunning argument for piracy because I don't know a single person who would be this upset about piracy. Virtually everyone I know in real life is either cool with piracy or apathetic towards piracy. I've only ever encountered "piracy is stealing bro!" when I used to be on /r/games, a bunch of cringey R!ddit G1mers. There's a reason why sharing Netflix accounts is universally a thing even though that counts as "stealing."
Do they also get mad when you take too much paper napkins from McDonalds? Do they think installing adblock counts as stealing money from Youtubers? Do they have a nervous breakdown when they realized the pen that they were using at work is still in their car a week later because they forgot to put it back to their work desk where it belongs?
And I'll be that person, but I think it's completely disrespectful and rude for your partner to completely shit on your friend who's trying to share. If anything, they're the one who's entitled expecting the entire world to conform to their garbage (and let's be frank, completely unpopular and out of touch) opinion on piracy. A simple "no thanks" or a "nah I'm good you don't need to do that but thanks anyways I appreciate that" would've been fine instead of throwing a temper tantrum in front of a complete stranger like a spoiled brat.
Lol, they're the one who brought it up in the first place. And what do they mean by "never talking about it again" because this sounds like they don't want you to pirate anymore.