You still don't get it, do you? You still think MP3s are going to be the swollen river that halts the march to the West of your little gravy train. So you're going to spend millions of dollars, and twist dozens of celebrity arms, to launch a print, radio and television ad campaign to try and convince Joe Average that file swapping is stealing. Britney Spears going on about "people going into the computers and logging on and stealing our music" is just going to annoy me. I mean just look at that poor grammar! If you're going to lecture me, at least you could consult a dictionary first.

Let me explain things to you one more time, mkay? There are two kinds of file swappers: A) punks who get no allowance and can't afford to shell out the $18 for the new P. Slim Kid Biggie Li'l 2 Boyz CD, and B) people like me, who make a good living, can afford to buy the CDs, but are damned if we will until we've heard the whole thing.

A huge percentage of us listen to the majority of our music in the car. Do you have any idea how time and resource consuming it is to convert MP3s to WAV format so you can play them in your car? I have a husband, two small children, three cats and a thriving home-based business...I have no time for such nonsense.

You've killed Napster, you're hunting down Kazaa and you're now gunning for the peer-to-peer networks that power Limewire, et al. You still don't get that the most intelligent thing to do would be to partner with these folks, offer quick links to purchase the music through the network, like Virgin Radio does. I realize this would require you think outside of your 1982-era box, but I promise that's better than CD sales declining further because we all think you're assholes.

The original Open Letter to the Recording Industry is here.