It is much much more than that my friend.
RIAA is afraid of the internet and MP3s for a much larger reason than people downloading MP3s.
RIAA is afraid. Afraid of the "garage band" types. If you, I, and a few other Freepers of musical talent got together and made good music, and wanted to sell it, well...we don't need to get a large multi-record deal with a RIAA member. We don't need agents, we don't need distributors, we can do it all ourselves through the internet.
I think that is what scares RIAA the most. A few $100 of acoustic material in your garage, a $1000 computer, a website, and a paypal account, and a decent internet connection and you and I and a mythical Freeper band can make, record, edit, and sell our music, and nobody but us will get a share of the proceeds.
We don't have to be bound to any contracts to get our music distributed. We don't have to pay a lot of middle-people to get our music distributed. We don't have to pay the costs associated with print advertising, and with CD duplication and distribution. A large corporation is not getting its hands on our music, we aren't having to pay a bunch of union workers to setup the eqipment, record, edit, and then process for sale our music. The music stores and distributors aren't needed by us because we distribute it online, ready to e-mail somebody as soon as they make a payment.
Your seeing a two-pronged assault here, one against online music, and one against bands playing live. Look at the consolidation of the theaters/venues. We are getting close to a vertical monopoly. Clear Channel and the others can force theater/venue owners to not play certain acts and only book what they want, or else they'll send the bigwigs down the road to another venue. This way they can keep the indie bands (such as our mythical Freeper band) from getting too big and too noticed, to where we are just selling locally and only hitting the clubs with less than 100 seats.
What if you had a Pink Floyd or a Led Zeppelin or a Jethro Tull or a Rolling Stones, and they are just starting out, and they go the way of the MP3, and they handle their own production through computers, and their own distribution through MP3s. Word of mouth keeps spreading and spreading. They play larger and larger venues and make more and more money. RIAA would not like most of that money going to the people who created the music. RIAA and the big companies would have a harder and harder time of bringing in new blood, because who the heck would want to have to give up so much money and profit when they can do it on a smaller scale but retain control of their music and where the money is going.
just my $0.02. Based on conversations with a friend who is on the fringe of the music industry.
Just try to explain that to the close-minded loggerheads in this thread.