>I personally don't classify downloading other people's work as stealing, but building a huge business from it is totally different matter.
You should though, because the two are just different shades of the same color. Downloading other people's work = benefiting from their work without their permission. Building a huge business = benefiting from their work without their permission on a larger scale.
If I hear a song on the radio I'm benefiting from the artists work without paying. If I record a song off the radio then sell copies of it to other people I am doing something entirely different.
You are paying for the ads that support the radio station when you buy any advertised product or donate to a political campaign that buys ads. The radio station pays to play the song. You are paying artists to listen to their music on the radio.
You can't do it ad absurdum, though, and have to put the line somewhere. That reminds me - in one Czech Onion-like fake news, there was an article about the architect union collecting money from every person who looks at buildings; the more buildings you see, the more you will pay.
You just have to draw the line somewhere and I think that pirating for personal use is fine.
I think it's reasonable to say that pirating for personal, non-commercial use (even when "non-commercial" is always vaguely defined) is fine.
You should though, because the two are just different shades of the same color. Downloading other people's work = benefiting from their work without their permission. Building a huge business = benefiting from their work without their permission on a larger scale.