Interesting developments are going on in this area, the tide may be turning slightly.....
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,14 ... _tophead_2
Four years after it shuttered the original Napster with a legal assault, the recording industry is taking a different approach to online file-swapping:
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Recording companies have begun taking steps to legitimize the peer-to-peer technology that lets computer users share songs, video and other files with one another online.
..Around 330 million tracks were purchased online last year from online stores such as Apple's iTunes. But around 5 billion were downloaded from free file-sharing networks, Goodman said.
Meanwhile, recording companies have sued 11,700 computer users for file-swapping. Of those, 2,500 cases have been settled, typically for about $3,000 each....
..."When it comes down to it, why is somebody going to pay for something they can get for free?" said Mac Padilla, 21, a student who lives in Los Angeles...
freak: