When someone downloads and makes copies for personal use without buying or renting the product, they do far more than simply "rip off the big corporate a-holes who've been ripping everyone off and therefore deserve it as payback".
The financial income earned by novelists, authors, writers, screenplay editors, actors, musicians, composers, producers, directors is either fully or partially derived from royalties earned according to law through the licensing of their art by major corporations specializing in the accounting and paying of artists' royalties.
That means that the very livelihoods of artists involved with music, theatre, film, literature, etc. are at stake, all the more so because these people are "the last ones on the list" when it comes time to actually be paid what they've earned.
When any creative work is "sold" / "distributed", etc., the licensing company secures the exclusive rights to gather, account for, and distribute the monies due all of their contracted artists for performances / publishing / royalties which must be paid for each and every live or recorded performance, sale, rental of an artist's work. This includes songs played on a jukebox or heard over a blaring sound system in a nightclub, live stadium shows, CD and vinyl sales, each and every video or DVD rented or purchased, streaming of YouTube and other file sharing websites, etc. etc...all over the entire world!
All involved with creating a film or CD or video or even a TV show sign long term contracts so that the licensing companies which they choose are to exclusively represent their claims to royalties and residuals (royalties paid for each and every re-run TV series / classic shows always shown repeatedly, etc...
As a matter of fact, very often the biggest stars and entertainers sign film contracts whereby they forgo monetary payment for their acting or composing, in exchange for "x" amount of the royalties off all future showings, sales, and rentals of their work.
So when you read about so and so signing a multi-million dollar film contract, more often than not half of that money is the estimated royalty earnings that they are expected to earn in the future from the repeat performances of their work.
If their film bombs at the box office....well ..... goodbye to their expected earnings.
So, the bottom line is that illegal copying/downloading is theft of another's legally earned incomes, because they worked very hard for many years to give the world their art for enjoyment, usually struggling for most of their life to attain some level of success and recognition, and then thanks to digital technology someone can simply take, copy, and repeatedly enjoy the work of other people without their ever being compensated so much as a penny.
The whole world is guilty here, but the next time you think about how easy it is to push "save" or "download and save", think about if you are really doing the correct thing because you will be depriving hundreds of honest workers of their incomes for the next ten to twenty years of their lives.