I think one way the corporations have to give is to keep their products in print. With digital storage and delivery, there's no excuse for anything going out of print.
Examples. Small Artist who never signed Big Label contract has all his stuff available on his website. It will always be there. Maybe he's even instituted digital delivery, so as to never need to print CD's. For $11.99 you can get the latest Neal Morse release on lossless filess. He will always have control of his product. Anyone making that product available on a "blogspot" can be properly shamed into removing it. I've seen it happen.
Big Artist signed Big Label deal in the 1970's and released many albums. A couple have been re-released on CD, most have not been, in America. All were re-released in limited quantities in Japan, however. A&M to this day, despite pleading by Rick Wakeman still refuses to make his 70's stuff available, as they own the rights. Mr. Rick Wakeman Fan (me) has bought 2 on Russian bootlegs (the same Russian label I bought CD versions of the 2 Morrisonless Doors albums) of those Japanese releases and has downloaded the rest, with no apologies. There is no excuse for A&M not even releasing these to an Amazon, for sale, as MP3's. None.
Nothing ever goes out of print, anymore, whether artists or labels want it to or not. That genie is out of the bottle. It's time labels and artists take away that excuse for downloading (and buying bootlegs).
Heh, reading that story is another justification in the comments, artist themselves have nurtured. I won't pay $20 for Bruce Springsteen when I can just take his stuff and give my money to someone more deserving. Bruce Springsteen. You did build that.
