The question is always: how much money would those individuals make if their work wouldn't be pirated. It's much more likely that they would just barely survive like they do now instead of raking in the big moneyz. Sometimes it's not piracy that's the problem, but simply that the art/content is unpopular, or a bad business model was chosen.

> when their intellectual work is stolen against their will and offered to their employer for free and the employer now cuts the paycheck in half because why pay if you can get it for free

Your friends should get a lawyer. This is a different case than people "pirating" content because the content is locked exclusively behind yet another service subscription.