You know what piracy is killing? Community. If you try and gauge the total number of actual viewers for the show, the number is pretty respectable, if you look at the number who watch it from a monetizable source, the numbers make it look barely viable.

The problem is, Community appeals to a demographic that is the most likely to pirate the show. The Community cast have stories of doing college campus tours where, polling the audience, up to 90% of the people in the room are watching it not from broadcast tv.

Despite regularly being ranked as one of the best comedies currently airing, Community is likely going off the air after at most one more season and the reason why is because NBC simply can't make a profit on it.

I don't care what people pirate or what their reasons are but I think they should be honest and acknowledge the actual effect that piracy has on art rather than make up spurious hypotheticals to salve their conscience.