> TPB doesn't connect musician to audience -- it distances musician from audience even more than the record companies ever did! Piracy is the ultimate in passive consumerism. It's consumerism so passive there isn't even a twice-removed economic connection. There's no connection at all. You -- the viewer or listener -- might as well not even exist.
The connection is the same as always have been, you view their film/listened to their music/etc, and hopefully liked it. By that metric, borrowing a book from a friend also doesn't count. This coupling of money and art is a disservice to both those things.
> On TPB, Popcorn Time, and any number of these other things, I don't even see a way to pay the artists if I want to.
This is so wrong. Things don't work like that. Say I watch the latest blockbuster, or the latest Game of Thrones episode. Who do I pay?
Somebody to whom the artist has sold the rights to his creation for money based on the expectation that they will then get paid in his stead, and who might have an agreement with the artist to share part of the money you pay them.
The connection is the same as always have been, you view their film/listened to their music/etc, and hopefully liked it. By that metric, borrowing a book from a friend also doesn't count. This coupling of money and art is a disservice to both those things.
> On TPB, Popcorn Time, and any number of these other things, I don't even see a way to pay the artists if I want to.
This is so wrong. Things don't work like that. Say I watch the latest blockbuster, or the latest Game of Thrones episode. Who do I pay?