Potential Profit != Profit Loss

Not everyone who watched a streaming copy of Ghost Rider or Step Up 2 would’ve paid to see it in theaters. Incentive to watch or copy something is heightened by the ease of the process. You can’t just say, “every viewing we didn’t profit from is a loss” because with a greater barrier to viewing, there’s not a direct 1=1 correlation.

Digitization and profit from intellectual property (because the production is paid for by investors before it’s made, so we’re paying speculators who want additional profit on multiple “viewings,” an intangible product at best, plus merchandising, etc. derivative products) make arguments like this very murky and really just bad logic.

This type of product is less about paying the producer and more about undercutting the additional profit margins of those that re-sell something for an “experiential” product (like a ticket to a theme park). you even have to alter the perspective between movie and TV productions being sold through various formats and things like video games or computer programs. Hell, computer software is a whole different thing because it has such utility beyond a closed text like a movie or book.

I don’t debate people need to be paid for work, but the arguments usually don’t talk in the realm of actual economics. People still profit by work, they’re just unhappen that they’re profit margins aren’t greater, and that’s a debatable point in a free market.