RIP. He might have only been
a backer but he helped pave the way for P2P torrenting getting mainstream attention and eternally pissing off the content mafia in true hacker spirit.
Comments like these distract from the larger point you're making because they misrepresent the nature of the effect that TPB (and similar services) actually have had on artists, and on the historical relationship between artists and the capital class throughout history.
It's a common misconception that filesharing harms artists - that's a misconception put forth by the RIAA and its ilk because it harms them. In reality, the relationship is much more complicated, because artists aren't the ones who directly benefit from album sales anyway, and they are themselves often exploited by the record labels who are the ones directly harmed by filesharing (to the extent that you believe filesharing even constitutes harm, which is a separate and debated point).
Case in point EU study proving that.
https://gizmodo.com/the-eu-suppressed-a-300-page-study-that-...
The EU Suppressed a 300-Page Study That Found Piracy Doesn’t Harm Sales