They fight the artists

The RIAA constantly gives the line that they're fighting for the artists, the little guys, the creators. But really, they are fighting for themselves: the Big Four recording companies. Though they sometimes find a favoured artist to shill for them, they are transparently anti-artist: they want to lower the royalty paid to songwriters from 13% of wholesale (about nine cents) to 8% (about 5.5 cents).

Why? Because that way the "recording companies" can keep more of the money. This, at the same time that they slash their promotional budgets and the Internet eliminates their former costs of actual disc production. Basically, they now operate as a protection racket: they don't actually do anything anymore but stand between artists and distributors like iTunes and Napster, take their cut & screw over artists financially, and prevent "illegitimate" music from getting on the radio. Pimps give better economy in their service to prostitutes.

The recording industry is at arms because file sharing threatens their business model, not artists or the quality of the art. Just ask 50 Cent: "What is important for the music industry to understand is that file-sharing doesn't hurt artists." It sure does hurt the recording industry that feeds on artists, though.

Why should we care? Because the recording companies (and movie companies) are willing to destroy freedom of expression for all of us (and hurt our democracies, too) just to prop up their dying monopolies. They can only do it if we allow them. If you're Canadian, it is not too late: help stop the Canadian DMCA.