[Bennett]

The problem with that is that record sales really do little for the artist, unless they sell an absolutely massive amount. It's the record executives and companies themselves that are hurting from lack of sales.

While you might think, "who cares, those guys are assholes anyway," this directly translates into what you hear on the radio/tv these days. The record companies have to make money, which is why you see so much manufactured tripe mass marketed and then dropped by the second or third album, when they've found the next big thing.

And downloading mp3's has become a much bigger problem for the industry than merely copying CD's. If copying were a problem it would have been one long ago when people could dub records or cassettes. There was no lawsuit or list of names of all the people who bought a ten-pack of blank magnavox cassettes. The fact that action is being taken now, i think, show it is a larger problem.