Music, the web and the message.
This guy is right on track. The music industry is completely two-faced on the "file trading" thing.

First of all, NSYNC, BSB, Britney, Christina and Pink along with the oh-so-carefully picked "alternatives" like Linkin Park are all marketing and branding campaigns made up of assembly line made stars who write nothing, compose nothing, and contribute nothing. Nothing of value is generated from these stars. The industry selects, develops and then sticks with their cash-cow stars building mindlessly catchy crap that saves them money in the long haul. Imagine new rock stars that had to have all new promotions? New Stationary! New People! More 'awareness' campaigns! Times Square Signing ceremonies...etc....

So the industry is doing two things to compensate:
1) the 3 R's: Rehash, re-package and reissue. Old, immediately recognizable voices are being repackaged with Zeppelin, elton john, the eagles,etc.. all coming out with new cd's, dvd's, arrangements, mixes etc. remember the hatchet job they did 2 years ago with bob marley?

2) litigate: all new attacks against kazaa failed. now they want to take on the fans. smart, guys. really smart. do you think the 60 m. americans who download are going to back down? not a chance. With a 60 m. person lobby, congress will be hard pressed not to pass "pro download" laws.. the minute they litigate a college kid who's dad is mogel, there will be trouble. ...some are fighting back on this front.

But can the record industry really stand on the "we're soooo the victim here" crap? A slightly different rip off the industry has been accustomed to, is ripping off old artists that reaches epic proportions....the resurgance of britney and friends is basically a ten year cycle, of superhypercrap, like disco, new kids, color me badd, rick astly ,etc....basically all ripping off abba to some extent. And now its on "the cycle that never ends".

Also, with emergence of mindless, structured and formulaic rap thievery is unparalled. What about De la soul ripping off the birds? even CCR's "down on the corner" was ripped off entirely by DMX. All X did was rap over top and release the song. that is crap. Puff daddy ripped off linda ronstadt, the furious five, and annie lennox...in one song! Get your own basslines and beats!

how can the industry, with its overblown cost structure, ridiculous royalty percentages and substandard product even attempt to point the finger anywhere? "oh our sales are dropping" boo friggin hoo. I remember buying $15-20 cassettes that would have one freakin' song that was good, and the rest were crap....and this happened with CD's...for years. Once the industry had you with one derived song, they pitched the rest of the 'unseen' album on the public and were taken for a ride...since we never got to preview the album, they might as well have filled in with the sound of laughing record executives for the fat lot of filler that CD collections are made.

we, the consumer have been ripped off for years. the RIAA and Metal-Lica can suck it long and suck it hard.