Mike, if you wanna spend your time and energy fixing that hole, good luck. smile The major label system is wasting tons of cash and goodwill trying to patch it up. Meanwhile, the water just finds another way out, as water often does.

We've been living with piracy for how long now? Napster (the original) was built in 1999. Physical CD piracy has been around even longer. Has anything changed? Has filesharing decreased? No, in fact it's more rampant than ever. Is there less music as a result? Nope, there's even more music being released these days, some directly from ProTools to the internet, with no copy protection (on purpose!).

Forget about the Russian pirated stuff flooding the market. It's already flooded.

Artists should be focused on creating new music and building a fanbase that is interested in supporting them. No one should have the "privilege" of griping about piracy until they've built something of value. Writing songs doesn't count. Releasing a few CDs doesn't count. Those things used to be rare. They aren't anymore. Writing a *great* song that attracts several thousand people to your mailing list? Okay, now you can complain, but only after you mail me your first iTunes check. smile

It's cliche to say so, yeah, but it really is an adapt-or-die situation. Diseases may affect everyone, but there are always survivors who emerge stronger and fitter.