Streaming movies/tv shows for free: Legal or illegal?

Right so basically I need you people to settle a dispute I have with friends/family

My friends and some relatives seem to be under the impression that streaming movies and or tv shows for free is somehow legal "because you're only streaming not actually downloading".

Now what I'm thinking is the creator of the movie will have paid millions for the production and has Copyright on said movie. If someone was to stream it for free they're not giving the content creator anything in return so it's basically stealing. It's similar to buying music, if you buy a song on iTunes you don't then own the song, you own a licence to play that song on your iPhone/iPad/Mac just like if you buy a movie you don't OWN the movie you have paid the content creator so that you can then watch the movie.

I study computing in college and before that I enjoyed it in high school. Part of the IT course in high school was on the subject of Copyright and although this exact topic wasn't covered, the music example which I just used was.

I just can't see how watching a movie for free is in any way legal, downloaded or not.

Thanks! :)

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