The MPAA Beats The RIAA, Hands Down

Especially at lawsuits.

The MPAA has stated that since these sites have been shut down, the downloads are becoming more and more unsuccessful due to lack of users and the lack of files being online. Most users though seem to say their experience with Torrents has been better since there are more sites to choose from.

Slyck News not only agrees, but goes even farther, pointing out that of the sites that the MPAA has supposedly "closed," virtually all of them are still carrying functional BitTorrent trackers - which means they're not closed at all. However, if you believe the MPAA, 90% or so of the sites they've sued no longer offer torrent files. If that's true, it means that the MPAA is certainly doing better in their war on their customers than the RIAA - there's thus far been essentially no change whatsoever in the number of downloaders, or the numbers of music files traded.

What's really interesting, of course, neither the MPAA or the RIAA will admit. Both groups have changed their marketing strategies to reflect the new situation, despite their constant refusal to admit it. Movies go from theatrical release to DVD in an average of 6 months now, down from an average of nearly 18 months just 3 years ago. Despite the fact that online music stores have a catalog representing only maybe a sixth of all CD-recorded music annually, the record labels are now requiring new bands to allow online music sales as part of their standard contracts - a HUGE difference in policy.
Of course, neither group will admit that this change in policies has had any impact whatsoever upon piracy or filetrading - certainly, it's the lawsuits, not the fact that you don't have to wait 2 years to watch a new movie at home. Naturally, it's the lawsuits, and the law-passing, not the fact that more music goes to Rhapsody, ITunes, and Napster every single day.
Speaking of Napster, they've finally done what the idiot record labels should have done years ago. They've set up a service where you can make unlimited downloads every month, directly to your MP3 player, for $15. I may have to buy an iPod.