How interesting - artist contracts with record companies, clearly designed to permanently steal their copyright away and make far more money for the record company than the artist.

The record companies force musicians to sign away their copyright to the music *they* wrote and perform. And they want to take away the ability of consumers to make a personal copy of a CD for backup purposes or for use in a car, portable player or a computer. And they want to eliminate the very idea of owning a copy of the music and start making consumers pay every time they listen to an album. And they want to maintain their monopoly control of the albums they own the rights to so as to keep the price artifically high (even for 20-30 year old albums) and suck as many dollars as possible out of consumers' wallets.

Ditto for the movie studios and software companies, especially Microsoft. The ever-increasing cost of going to a movie or buying computer software directly harms consumers and benefits corporations, including CEOs and movie stars who make more money for 6 months of "work" than the average American will make in their entire lifetime. The television and movie industries want to take away our ability to time-shift content with a VCR or PVR unless they explicitly authorize it or unless we pay for the right to record it. And even then, they won't let you loan a copy of what you recorded to a friend or family member. And maybe they'll only allow you to watch it once. Or maybe they'll disable the fast forward when the commercials come on.

Do the record companies care about adequately compensating talented musicians? Do the movie studios care about making thoughtful, intelligent entertainment for a reasonable cost? Do software companies think crushing all their competitors and taking away consumer choice is in our best interest?

Do they not care what consumers want? Why do they treat all their customers as if they're criminals? Guilty until proven innocent? Biting the hand that feeds them?

Yes, in principle, as long as they continue to get rich in the process.