I've tried to keep out of this, but I feel like we're missing
something important here.

The actual legality of it is marginal at best.  What the RIAA is doing
is criminalizing their customers in an effort to shore up a failing
business / distribution model.  Any way you look at it, that's bad.
It's bad for customers and it's bad for the record industry.

Artists traditionally make very little off the album sales themselves.
 Most of their money comes directly from touring, merchandising, and
if they're lucky enough to be writing their own material AND they
didn't assign the rights to their record company (which is common,
usually the record company gets AT LEAST half) then they get some
publishing which is often where the real / long term money comes from.

For more information on how "artists" make out on the music industry,
check out Steve Albini's site (warning, he likes 4 letter words and
he's a bit jaded, but he's a smart fellow)
http://www.negativland.com/albini.html

The point is, album sales are really only a big deal to the record
companies.  Record companies thrived for decades because they
controlled the gateways to the American public.  The big four (used to
be the big five) own virtually all retail distribution of recorded
sound in the US.  Whether it's illegal or not, they've been bribing
the radio industry since there was a radio industry to heavily promote
music they want to push as the next big thing.

There's lots of references, here's a fairly current one. This isn't
about Sony, it's standard practice all around:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,163537,00.html Here's a slightly
older, but more informational article about how radio bribery (You
can't call it Payola, that's illegal!) works -
http://archive.salon.com/ent/feature/2001/03/14/payola/index.html

It worked great for a while.  The truth is, record companies were
making good product.  Yes they were making a lot of money off of
talented people, but those people who went on to become stars were
also making piles of cash.  The problem is, their business model,
which worked great for a long time, no longer works.  People aren't
listening to the radio like they used to.  MTV doesn't play music
videos.  Song placements in television shows is a hot market these
days, but it's a far cry from the feeding frenzy radio used to
produce.

Growth in the music industry was considered something of a given, but
they are reaching saturation.

People who download music are generally music fans and more likely to
buy more music than people who don't.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2347/125/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3052145.stm

The record companies. Regardless of any legal basis, are alienating
and criminalizing the people who they need the most.  Young music fans
who are statistically the most likely to spend money on anything music
related (merchandise, shows, recordings, DVDs and legal downloads.)

Unless they significantly change how they do business, they are going
to litigate themselves into a corner.  You can't win by suing your
customers. Public opinion is that sharing music (Which frankly has
been done for thousands of years) isn't considered morally "wrong" and
these lawsuits are just making the RIAA look like a bunch of money
grubbing bastards.

Look.  Businesses centered in the production of music have a right to
make money.  But they need to come up with smart models for doing so.
People have a right to feel like they are getting a good deal for the
money they pay and the music industry hasn't been providing that to
most customers for a while now.  And if a model no longer fits because
the world around us all is changing every day.. then companies can
either adapt to a new business model or face extinction. That's just
the way it works.

Luckily, record companies didn't get rich by being incredibly stupid.
They realize things have to change.  That's why they're hiring guys
like Rick Rubin in the hopes that they can help move things in a new
direction:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2006-07-06-rubin-main_x.htm

Enough about all of this.

I just wanted to say that I'm a musician, and a song writer and I
totally support digital downloading of music at little or no charge.

(So does Radiohead, and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and a lot of
other musicians)

For further reading:

http://www.downhillbattle.org/
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