It's beyond me what is on the recording industries mind these days, but one thing is clear. If they were walking through a cow pasture, they would be stepping in every pile of cow droppings along the way. The cats out of the bag, and it isn't going back in.

They are single handedly destroying the music business, by refusing to accept the inevitable, THEY CAN'T CONTROL EVERYTHING.

Thus far they've angered The Fans, The Musicians, The Songwriters, The Lawyers, The Educational Community, The Retailers, The Unions, and The Politicians. They recently testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee telling them what countries we should sanction. Now that's arrogance.

So far this year:

Rick Boucher asks the RIAA and IFPI to explain how their copy protection schemes work and raises the question if the copy protection is illegal under Audio Home Recording Act of 1996.

On January 9th, the RIAA lays off 16 employees, including Karen Allen, their "Internet Evangelist"

The Recording Artists Coalition announced fund raising concerts to take place the night before the Grammy's to raise money to fight the recording industry for fair contracts and accounting oversight. The concerts sell out.

The Department of Justice investigation into antitrust issues continues.

The EFF steps up to defend Morpheus as having substantial non-infringing uses.

The Supreme Court decides to hear the case of Eldred vs. Ashcroft (started out as Eldred vs. Reno) to determine if the retroactive Copyright Term Extension Act is constitutional.

The Second District Court of Appeals reinstates the Chambers vs. Warner Brothers Case saying the judge considered evidence he shouldn't have. (this is the watershed case for older artists)

Webcasting rates are set, most likely sending almost every webcaster offline, including non profit and college stations. Rates are retroactive to 1998. The webcasters have 30 days to pay after the rates are adopted.

Suncomm (Media Cloque) and Charley Pride's record label settle the consumer case brought by consumers over "protected CDs", agreeing to clearly label the CD as incompatible with DVD player, Computer CD Players and portable CD players.

Napster Judge Marilyn Hall Patel hands the RIAA a stunning defeat in a surprising turn around, by allowing Napster to do discovery on the copyrights the RIAA says they own, appoints a "Special Master" and gives the RIAA three weeks to prove they own the copyrights and that they are in fact "work for hire". (which the Recording Artists Coalition says they aren't) She also allows discovery on possible misuse of those copyrights to stifle competition to MusicNet and PressPlay.

Filesharing is at an all time high.

The RIAA releases figures showing that CD shipments are down 10.3%, but sales are only down 2.3 % in dollars.

Five songwriters file suit in LA District Court over record club sales and lack of accounting oversight.

California Senator Kevin Murray plans to introduce a bill this year to penalize record labels that purposely underpay royalties, this is in addition to the bill on the 7 year contract limitation.

THE EFF and 4 law school clinics launch chillingeffects.org to educate internet users to their rights online.

RIAA forms the California Music Coalition to fight against artists rights. Organizing support from people who are subject to the 7 year contract limitation in CA., the same rights the artists want.

And its still early......