Well, That's the new economics – and I don't think I can complain; over the last 5 years, I must have pirated thousands of dollars' worth of material off the web – software, music, audiobooks, comics, art, movies… It's all things I would never have bought, anyway, because I just can't afford it; I like it this way, and I'm glad I have this method of giving something back to the community, in the form of my art (and, in this case, it IS a "community", a small one, which needs this sort of input to exist). I do make the effort to also give something a bit more material back – most of the money I make from my online art goes to support sites, software developers and artists (that last one meaning I buy comic books and DVD's – but, hey, I could just have downloaded them for free, right?). I think it's great that people like David or Chris Morrison, who put up a high-quality product as a hobby (and for "ego-boosting", or whatever) do get a measure of monetary support; in this economy, I think it's a lot. And, after all, if an artist is good enough, and he's willing to put aside any feelings of distaste he might have, there's a rather large market of people who are willing to pay good money to have art work done to their very specific tastes… 👿
