Bullshit.
You don't have the "right" to make a living off of your artistic endeavors anymore than I have the "right" to make a living from making paper airplanes, having sex with college girls, or selling snowcones. You, like anyone else have the right to make as much money as you can, in any way you like, as long as you don't:
a) break the law
b) piss people off enough that they kill you
That's IT.
It's fine to complain about not getting paid appropriately for your work, but this sense of "artistic entitlement" needs to GO. If you can't hack it trying to support yourself doing what you love, either fix it, or suck it up like EVERYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET and do something different.
You are not entitled to make a comfortable living off of your art.
And as for "professionalism" argument, if you call all the bullshit I see on the Grammy's and hear on the radio "professional", then you can keep your professional works and their "150 years after the death of the artist" or whatever ridiculous length has been bought and paid for by the media companies.
You want to fix artists not being compensated appropriately? Band together and get rid of organizations like the MPAA and the RIAA, because they represent "artists" and they're making "artists" look like a bunch of greedy assholes. And why would anyone care if they aren't compensating a bunch of greedy assholes?
Now get of my lawn! I've got to go to WORK. Because not all of us are FORTUNATE enough to be able to feed our kids by farting the tune for "Old McDonald had a Farm" into a cup or selling macaroni portraits of Che Guverra.
