Millions spent on p2p battles
http://p2pnet.net/story/6629

p2p news / p2pnet:- The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America)
fights the good fight against those hundreds of millions of villainous men,
women and children who get out of bed, every morning, bent on robbing the
hard-pressed labels of what¹s rightfully theirs ­ their profits.

Acting for its owners, Organized Music (EMI Group, Vivendi Universal, Warner
Music and Sony BMG), the RIAA is championed by Mitch ŒThe Don¹ Bainwol and
Cary ŒScary¹ Sherman, the ceo and president of the RIAA, respectively.

But undoing the evil wrought by the likes of 14-year-old Britanny Chan
doesn¹t come cheap and according to US Internal Revenue Service filings, the
RIAA had an income of $46.4 million, but expenses of $51 million, leaving it
in the hole to the tune of $4.6 million.

And that¹s despite the many millions of dollars in blackmail payments the
RIAA has so far brought in from victims under Œsettlement¹ deals during its
sue Œem all marketing campaign

According to the IRS, the RIAA spent $14.5 million in outside legal fees and
$11.7 million in ³employee compensation².

Interestingly, Sherman got $1.13 million, but his boss, Bainwol, received a
trifling $908,848.

MPAA in the red
However, the RIAA isn¹t the only Œtrade¹ organization which finds itself
desperately trying to combat the ravages of file sharing.

The MPAA (Motion Picture Association, of America) owned principally by the
Big Seven studios, (Walt Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures Corporation, Twentieth Century Fox
Film Corporation, Universal City Studios LLLP; and Warner Bros), is also in
the trenches.

It brought in $51.5 million and paid out $53.1 million, putting it nearly
$1.6 million in the red for 2004, says its IRS filings.

It spent $8.4 million fighting the monster it created, dry-land piracy, and
spent $5.8 million on lobbying efforts.

Then-president Jack Valenti took home $1.4 million, executive vps Simon
Barsky and William Murray banked $380,351 and $379,559 respectively,
executive vp and general counsel Fritz Attaway received $285,263, senior vps
Brad Hunt, Vans Stephenson and Ken Jacobsen got $269,172, $249,602 and
$242,215 respectively, and senior vp and cfo Mark Howe was paid $198,975.

In the meanwhile, both entertainment industry groups are reporting record
earnings.



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