why stop there? keep all the money, financials indicate that EMI needs every cent.

by their own admission, the lobbies are losing enormous sums in their anti-consumer campaigns, and EMI's return on this investment is customer hostility and even lower sales. it's a losing game, and sounds like it would be more effective (and cost-effective) to bring lobbying in-house.

use the savings to fund a viable, subscription-based or low-price-per-unit online portal for your content (or just buy eMusic, they've already done it).

your bottom line will thank you.

Here let me fix that error for you -

"..and reel in the pirates that ALLEGEDLY cost the industry billions of dollars in lost sales every year."

Hmm probably used all that money to bribe the Swiss to sneak in a new EURO compliant active Copyright and DRM law which make the Finnish version look like small potatoes !

link = http://www.ige.ch/E/jurinfo/j103.shtm

Some one did point out the above country is also the home of Rapidshare.com too.

Oh well , the redoubtable Swiss will roll out the old faithful "we all get to vote for this crap by referendum" as I believe they are well on the way to the necessary 50,000 signatures to force the issue to a national poll !

What price a choice

The fact that CD sales are falling because of the fact that people are sick of paying the extoertionate prices demanded by the record companies just to line the pockets of useless, unporoductive, greedy executives and "talent" agents who couldn't spot someone with talent if that person hit the agent square in the face with a shovel doesn't have anything to do with it, nor does the fact that most of the stuff being foisted on the music buying public is nothing more than intellect free, talent free, taste free excremnent from the bowels of elephants with hemeroids.

Let's also not forget that the greedy pricks in the music industry always quote a figure in US dollars. As the US doller is about as boyant as a brick of course the "value" of music sales is going to be down. but, as is the wont with corrupt figures, the industry organisations use these misleading numbers in their campaign instead of developing a decent delivery method that would benefit the "artist" they claim to represent. Irefuse to lend them any credence until such time as they say it has resulted in the reduction of sales by XXX CD's.

How do you lose a sale if someone was not going to buy it in any event?

Maybe I just don't understand economics.....