If the HBO Max shitshow teaches us anything at all, it should be that when it comes to streaming media, media piracy is media preservation.
Physical media is harder to erase. Download your favorite animated shows today. Burn that shit to DVD and share it with your friends. If the corporations won't produce physical media, it's up to us to do it ourselves.
Streaming exclusives are the enemy of media preservation and archiving. Nothing should be lost just because corporations don't respect the art they own. When piracy is the only option, it becomes vital to pirate, lest things get lost forever.
There are instances of lost media being found again because someone home-taped it. The torrent you seed, the episodes you download, could one day be the only reason your favorite streaming show wasn't lost forever.
Art is being destroyed. Workers are being exploited and abused. And at the end of it all, what's there to show for it? Nothing, because HBO Max is setting the precedent that you can just delete whatever you want, whenever you want, and not even tell the artists.
Animation workers aren't being respected as artists OR as workers, and shit like this is a perfect example.
