Ok, apparently you just don't get it. Just because she lost the case based on her fair use defense does not mean she did so because she 'downloaded' the files. Also, basing your opinion on a link to a Wikipedia article that only discusses the Appellate court decision, but not the lower court case is far fetched. It seems odd that the wiki article does not link to the lower court decision actually. Wikipedia can also be manipulated - I'm fairly sure the RIAA actively does so too.
In fact if you read the actual full appellate decision, it is filled with inaccuracies and an obvious RIAA slant. Since there really has not been many cases where the RIAA has actually won beyond an out of court sealed settlements, considering the trillions of cases of downloading - you can hardly consider this proof that downloading is illegal. It's merely an opinion that is partially valid in the 7th circuit when based on a fair use defense.
It states things like Music sales are down 30%. They're not - it's RIAA propaganda, albeit it could be true that the sales of RIAA music may be down or CD sales are down, considering the crap coming out of the RIAA based music industry these days - overall music sales have been increasing steadily every year.
It states: "Licensed Internet sellers, such as the iTunes Music Store, offer samples—but again they pay authors a fee for the right to do so, and the teasers are just a portion of the original." This is also untrue - iTunes does not pay me one dime for letting people listen to 30 second samples of my music and they don't pay the record labels for this either. (Yes, I have music on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, emusic and many other stores - I understand what they pay for very well). STREAMS are paid though (a pitiful 1 cent or less per stream), but iTunes does not offer streaming.
There still is no LAW making downloading illegal. Distributing copies is the only illegal issue that is stated in the law. If it was illegal, would the RIAA not also be breaking the law merely catching these supposed infringers? They are, after all, downloading a piece of a an unauthorized copy of a file right in order to obtain 'evidence'?
Copying is also still legal btw - as I can still copy my CDs to my MP3 player with zero fear of breaking a law.
Music fans have an ever increasing appetite for more music. It’s just that they consume it differently than in years past. Rather than buying a CD at the local music store, fans now look for a different consumption experience. They go to MySpace to directly connect with artists they love, watch videos on YouTube, purchase a few tracks on Amazon, build streaming radio stations to find similar tunes at Pandora, and more.
According to IFPI and Neilsen more music is being sold.
Here's some Neilsen stats...
NIELSEN INFO
2006
US Music Purchases exceed 1 billion, growth in overall music purchases exceeds 19%
Digital sales increase 65% from 2005
2007
US Music Purchases exceed 1.4 billion, growth in overall music purchases exceeds 14%
Digital music sales account for 23% of music purchases
2008
US Music purchases exceed 1.5 bilion, growth in overall music purchases exceeds 10%
Digital music sales account for 32% of music purchases
2009
US Music Purchases up 2.1% over 2008. Music sales exceeded 1.5 billion for the second consecutive year.
Digital music sales account for 40% of total US purchases.
Consider also the simultaneous increasing revenues from live music, now considered an artist's primary revenue source - but that's just getting farther off topic.