There's two clear reasons the RIAA hates the internet:
1. Digital forms of storage mean that they can't recharge for the same product on a different media every fifteen years - the revolving door business model of vinyl to tape to CD etc.
2. People can create without them. The labels have cooked up a good racket making themselves a necessary part of the distribution process. Online, anyone can get their work out to an unlimited number of people.
The only thing that will bring the RIAA into the late 20th century, much less the 21st is for the current crop of CEOs, weaned on 1950s business practices, to get old an die, allowing the younger generation to take over (but they might just be dickheads too).
