The way that they are trying to treat us is a pale echo of how they have been treating musicians all along.

Yep, pretty much. And if you think it's bad now, consider all the artists from the forties and fifties that got a new car for a record that earned the companies hundreds of thousands of dollars (an expensive car running about four to five grand in those days)... or that got diddly squat.

I can believe it. It would still would be nice to have something official to give to people along those lines.

Well, unfortunately, I don't think you're going to see something like that until someone gets prosecuted. Record contracts are under NDA; they spell out quite specifically what artists are and are not allowed to discuss with the public about them, and carry quite heavy penalties if those clauses are contravened. A large part of the issue is that the seeming teeming masses of record companies basically come down to three entities (see the article for the list). There has been a lot of collusion over the years between manufacturers, distributors, and retailers over the years. However, since until quite recently almost all of this was owned lock stock and barrel by the Yanks there hasn't been a lot of impetus to move on the apparent abuses by the cartel. Why are things changing now? Well, taking a look at those companies one quickly realises that none of them are American now... the US recording industry has been bought out wholesale by overseas interests.

... the RIAA and ilk are so afraid of the Internet. Musicians aren't hurt, because their current structure doesn't reward them anyway, and it helps put butts in seats... which means the musicians aren't dependent on them for marketing to help them put the butts in the seats anymore. Combine that with the fact that good recordings can be made for spectacularly small sums nowadays...

Of course, it doesn't occur to the vampire whores to actually share the rewards with the workers who produce the goods they profit on... instead, they're trying to legalise it out of existence. After all, if they can do that, they can continue on their fat dumb and happy ways.