But undoing the evil wrought by the likes of 14-year-old Britanny Chan doesn’t come cheap and according to US Internal Revenue Service filings, the RIAA had an income of $46.4 million, but expenses of $51 million, leaving it in the hole to the tune of $4.6 million.

And that’s despite the many millions of dollars in blackmail payments the RIAA has so far brought in from victims under ‘settlement’ deals during its sue ‘em all marketing campaign

According to the IRS, the RIAA spent $14.5 million in outside legal fees and $11.7 million in “employee compensation”.

Interestingly, Sherman got $1.13 million, but his boss, Bainwol, received a trifling $908,848.

MPAA in the red
However, the RIAA isn’t the only ‘trade’ organization which finds itself desperately trying to combat the ravages of file sharing.

The MPAA (Motion Picture Association, of America) owned principally by the Big Seven studios, (Walt Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures Corporation, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Universal City Studios LLLP; and Warner Bros), is also in the trenches.

It brought in $51.5 million and paid out $53.1 million, putting it nearly $1.6 million in the red for 2004, says its IRS filings.

It spent $8.4 million fighting the monster it created, dry-land piracy, and spent $5.8 million on lobbying efforts.

Then-president Jack Valenti took home $1.4 million, executive vps Simon Barsky and William Murray banked $380,351 and $379,559 respectively, executive vp and general counsel Fritz Attaway received $285,263, senior vps Brad Hunt, Vans Stephenson and Ken Jacobsen got $269,172, $249,602 and $242,215 respectively, and senior vp and cfo Mark Howe was paid $198,975.

In the meanwhile, both entertainment industry groups are reporting record earnings.

(Thanks, B)

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Source: p2pnet.net.

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