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I see that the BPI are taking action against private music file sharers who use programmes like KaZaa, under the guise of "Protecting the artists royalties and rights" and complain that if this trend continues they will no longer be able to "invest" in "New talent"]
What Utter Crap - the record industry, like most industries, is a few massive multi-nationals who's eyes are firmly on their profit margins and nothing else. New acts rarely get any long-term investment, they treat all their artists with no respect, and the sole concern is unit-shifting. Let's hope people start seeing them for what they are.
As for myself, I have, in the past used Napster and then KaZaa to download tracks I can't readily buy, songs by people I wouldn't want a full cd by, and bootlegs etc. It hasn't stopped me buying cd's, in fact I have probably bought stuff I wouldn't have otherwise got DUE to downloading. As for paying for downloads, I'd still rather have a cd single.

Have you seen the South Park on this subject, very funny and very true, talking about Mettalica only living in mild luxury due to internet downloading etc

Though I find the whole file-sharing business somewhat underwhelming, I imagine your stance represents the majority of sharers. What has really rankled the industry, especially the majors, is how they failed to take the internet into account in its early stages, and it's left them playing catch-up. So it's not so much loss of revenue, more loss of potential revenue, and in an age when each major new act must have at least half a million spent on them before anything is even released, this for them is important. As such, and regardless of file-sharing, it can surely only be matter of time before they've got music on the net as regimented as your high street HMV, for both selling and promotional purposes.

As for the now near-obligatory internet leaks of major records (some of which smack of PR stunts: U2 losing that laptop - oh yeah?) it can work both ways. Creates a buzz if it's a good record, creates a stink if it's bad, as both Oasis and (ho-ho) Metallica have found out. No wonder they protested.