Well, our companies are already doing that, very aggressively in fact. And the increasing availability of music online--in a host of subscription and download services that offer more and more content, in a smorgasbord of different packages, at a variety of competitive price points--also rebuts his claim that the music industry has made little effort to look at new business models that take advantage of the new technologies.

But the fact that record companies are embracing new technologies and the Internet is really beside the point. In a nutshell, what Shapiro is really saying is something like this: Despite what Congress and the courts say, digital stealing isn't really stealing, and therefore it isn't immoral. Moreover, despite what the U.S. Constitution says, intellectual property rights aren't really rights because intellectual property isn't really property. Therefore, even if music piracy really is stealing, copyright owners don't have a right to take reasonable steps to prevent it.

If that sounds like sophistry, it's because it is. Ironically, Shapiro accuses the copyright community of declaring "war on technology." But the only war being waged here is the rhetorical warfare that Shapiro has launched against artists and labels that simply want to protect their ability to continue in the business of creating music.

The last thing we need is more overheated and polarizing rhetoric. Shapiro would do well to drop the destructive diatribes and instead engage in some constructive dialogue. That's the only way we're going to figure out how to better serve consumers, creators and technology companies alike in these challenging times.