You have to consider that your actions won't change the overall situation much, unless you paid hundreds of dollars for the album. So, whatever happens will happen with or without you paying. From that point of view, you might as well save your money, no?
Of course, if everyone thought that way, things would go differently, and the experiment would fail. So, yes, homo economicus is too simple, but does provide food for thought.
I'm a lot happier with restaurants in Italy, where there is no tipping. You pay a fair price for the meal, and that's that. Most of the time you get good service, sometimes you get bad service, but not out of proportion to how things are in the states or here in Austria. And the food is way better in any case:-)
I also like it better without tipping, and granted, it would also work if people just stay away from restaurants with unfriendly waiters.
1.) I want radiohead to make more albums, so I wanted to show them that it is worth doing so. 2.) I want to hurt the RIAA (and other evil players) by showing them that they are not necessary anymore. Ideally, the success of the inrainbows scheme would lead to copycats, meaning more cheap and free music for me.
I think those reasons are perfectly rational. It pisses me off (sorry, but really!) if wannabe economists claim that rational beings should pay nothing.
Nor is tipping very puzzling: it guarantees that I get a friendly waitress in the restaurant, because if she is treating me badly, there will be no tip. OK, you have to think around several corners (ie pay it forward) to realize that, but the whole society works that way. It is not an impossible train of thoughts. If I don't tip, my fellow humans will suffer (angry cab driver), so if they hear about it, they will punish me. I think in the US waiters even come after you shouting if you don't tip.