...but MP3 use can be for the benefit of all, if only the music industry realised that...

Indeed... I can honestly say that since purchasing my Rio Central and Empeg I have nearly doubled my entire cd collection. Without the ability to listen to the mp3's I would never have bought that many cd's simply because it's such a hassle to listen to all of those albums. I actually find myself trying to plug holes in my collection by buying all of the cd's of a particular artist without getting any compilations (and wonder how many others would do the same). I would never consider purchasing one song....entire cd's for me please.

If the music industry wants to increase sales AND stifle piracy they need to lower pricing as well as put some interesting reading material in a paper book format in each cd. Or do like metallica did and throwh in a dvd. I'm currently working on my Beatles collection and really enjoy reading the books that come in the Anthology and BBC cd's.