It's not about saving a few bucks, it's about taking responsibility for the consequences of your spending. If $1 out of $10 goes to supporting the artist and the other $9 goes towards stripping users of the ability to control their own devices, or towards other zero/negative sum games being played by the platform in the spirit of moat building, then paying for content through normal channels is doing more harm than good.
If there was a way to configure my players to fingerprint the content and send money to the artist as I play it (or probably at the end of the month, so the total spend for that month is configurable) I'd use it. Payment should be irrespective of where you got the bits. I'm trying to build such a thing.
But until a better way exists, I'm not going to feel bad about my occasional piracy in the meantime.
If there was a way to configure my players to fingerprint the content and send money to the artist as I play it (or probably at the end of the month, so the total spend for that month is configurable) I'd use it. Payment should be irrespective of where you got the bits. I'm trying to build such a thing.
But until a better way exists, I'm not going to feel bad about my occasional piracy in the meantime.