Leader: Should the UK music industry take the legal high ground?

In business you have to make unpopular decisions, that's a given, but nobody has actively courted negative press with the same kind of vigour that the record industry has displayed in hastily dragging its name through the mud.

In the US, the Recording Industry Association of America has made more enemies than it has records in the past 18 months and, worryingly, its UK equivalent, the British Phonographic Industry, seems to think that this is an approach it would be wise to follow.

Andrew Yeates, director general of the BPI, has warned that legal action may be the only option left for a beleaguered record industry.

But is this really worthwhile?

For starters, there is the age-old argument that the record industry is barking up the wrong tree.

Many believe file-sharing and music downloads have little to do with a dent in record sales that is more likely to be attributable to a drop in the standards of music being produced.

This is born out by the fact that independent labels, typically those producing more innovative sounds, have not seen any decline, while major labels, dependent upon tiresome cover versions, rehashed identikit pop acts and the nauseating Pop Idol format, have been found out and subsequently witnessed a drop in revenues.

The truth is that the record labels were too slow to embrace technology, leaving a chasm that was filled by the likes of Napster.

Originally the labels turned on Napster and Kazaa but successes, after the closure of Napster, were few and far between.

Now behind the times and in a strop, the labels are picking on 'the smallest bloke in the pub' by turning on individual consumers unlucky enough to be singled out from the millions using download services.

Such action will be costly, time consuming and will ultimately offer very little reward.

Some might call it spiteful; others might call it misguided.