of the crimson king

It's easy to say 'sue the bastards', but when a copyright suit is likely to cost anywhere from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions (depending on how good the record company lawyers are at drawing it out), You've gotta think twice before you send the legal sharks out into your swimming pool.

This just confirms how widespread this malpractice is. It was noted in New York Times, Billboard and Digital Music News about Beatles digital tracks being available on a EMI-approved vendor's site but EMI took a similar flippant attitude as noted in the article "Is EMI profiting from Beatles digital piracy?" at http://www.music2dot0.com/archives/8
As Robert Fripp wryly noted " this is known by the company, and allowed for within its operating structure. That is, efficiency is not seen as being in the direct interest of the record company - because it profits from its carelessness."
So at what point do we call this piracy? Somehow, much as the labels like to falsely focus on the morality of wrong and right of downloading, the business is actually simply built around accountants and lawyers and as most can't afford to take them on on the legal front, they seem right by default.

$799 a pop for each instance of any song being available for download and each instance if it being downloaded.

This is much worse than they are going after grannies and dead people for, the ARE actually doing it for profit.

What kind of crappy lawyer doesn't take a complaint to court, when they wont listen to his legal request? If he was my lawyer he'd get fired on the spot for a comment like that, even if it was to someone who wasn't his client.

The obvious recourse is to sue them for copyright violation. Under the DMCA that they helped write, they are liable for up to $150,000 per download. That'll make you more money than you made selling the music in the first place, plus the irony is delicious.

If they are distributing the music to which you own the copyright, the solution is simple. Submit a DMCA take-down notice to their ISP (of the people selling the music). I bet submitting a takedown notice for someplace like amazon.com or itunes.com will quickly ensure that they respect your copyrights, just like they want everyone to respect theirs.

This sort of thing would seem to constitute something akin to unclean hands on the part of the music industry when it comes to going after members of the public for alleged copyright infringement.

it would be much better to reach an agreement with some music downloading sites ...

instead of feeding the burocracy of record firms