imagine spending 1,000 hrs creating something and just like 'rats' nobody wants to contribute or support your art but they all want to STEAL it? Nothing lower in all the universe than a thief!
You're still thinking like the old record companies. If you walked into a music store and stole a record, that was an actual product taken off the shelf that could not be sold to someone else, that is theft.
With digital content, NOTHING is actually TAKEN from anyone. Sure maybe you were expecting to get paid for it but it's like you want to tax someone for breathing. I mean if someone saw your content do you want to charge someone for even THINKING about it later? Realize the cats out of the bag, there's no way to FORCE people to pay you.
Think about Metallica hating on napster while supposedly being rock stars, people just mocked them and they actually soured a lot of fans. I never supported them after that.
Just because someone downloads something of yours for free doesn't mean you've
LOST that revenue, they most likely would've never paid anyways so you didn't lose anything. Sure there are some potential profits lost but here's the thing that the entire music industry found out. By making the content freely available it actually gets much WIDER reach and those people that want to support the artist (by going to concerts) will gladly do so. They actually end up getting more of an audience and $$$ as a result.
What killed music piracy?!? Pandora/Spotify and other free streaming services
One thing that smart content creators started realizing is that people will willingly support content creators if they're honest with them. we all have to pay bills so we know what that's about. The days of strong-arming people for $$$ are over.
Just assume that you WILL not be able to prevent your intellectual property from getting out there and embrace it, people will support you if they want to. Others are doing early paid releases and free after that .