Why record companies are morons...

This just popped up on my MyYahoo page from Weird News from the AP:

" CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Gertrude Walton was recently targeted by the recording industry in a lawsuit that accused her of illegally trading music over the Internet. But Walton died in December after a long illness, and according to her daughter, the 83-year-old hated computers.

More than a month after Walton was buried in Beckley, a group of record companies named her as the sole defendant in a federal lawsuit, claiming she made more than 700 pop, rock and rap songs available for free on the Internet under the screen name "smittenedkitten."

Of course, the poor freaked out daughter of the deceased apparently sent these assholes a death certificate, and they have since dropped the case. I have absolutely no respect for the Big Record Companies. The rip the consumers off by overcharging us for content and not signing less mainstream artists. The rip the artists off by not giving them nearly the profit and artistic integrity they deserve. The big labels are sucking the music industry dry, and then they wonder why we decide to go alternative routes for out tunes. Fuck them. I will stick to my tried and true method for music purchase. First, hear the new bands at The Dame, or on my personal radio station on Launch Cast (Yahoo). If I hear more than three songs from one band from one album I like, I go to Kaaza lite and download songs from the entire album to see if I like it. If the album passes my test ( no more than three songs that I have to FF through)I will go and buy the CD. Then I will erase the songs I took and replace it with songs from the purchased CD. I consider this fair. If there is only one or two songs I like , or the album is particularly rare and hard to find, I keep the downloaded songs till I find the CD. This way I am satisfied, the small record store I buy from stays healthy, and the artists get the money they have earned by me. Until the Big Labels get their heads out of their asses and wise up, I will continue to do this with no shame.