The Recording Industry Ass. of America is targeting retail stores this time around. The AP notes that they are doing it in typical shakedown fashion:

The stores will receive letters from the association telling them to stop making illegal music sales, demanding a settlement fee and asking for help in finding other pirated music. The RIAA did not say how much money it is demanding.

Naturally, the AP tows the RIAA sob story about declining music sales. They report that pirates cost the music industry $300 Million a year, and are the main reason that record sales are down 7% in 2002.

The Register however refutes that claim. They report what Hillary Rosen and the RIAA won't tell you. The facts are that the industry has produced 25% less over the past two years. In 1999, the recording industry released 38,900 new titles. In 2001, that number was down to 27,000. This supports what most pundits have been saying all along. More so, the Register reports that since "year-on-year unit sales have dropped a mere 10.3 per cent, it's clear that demand has held up extremely well: despite higher prices, consumers retain the CD buying habit."

Still, that doesn't stop the RIAA from crying wolf and pressing Congress to pass radical legislation, like the mandating of digital rights management technology into every electronic consumer product. Guess who'll be paying for that technology? If you said 'you and me', go to the head of the class.