Record companies love to make a big deal about how file sharing deprives artists of their royalties. Too bad the record companies themselves must be forced, by court order, to pay the royalties they owe to artists instead of keeping it for themselves.
A two-year investigation by New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office found that many artists were not being paid royalties because record companies lost contact with the performers and had stopped making required payments.
The artists that were too hard for the record companies to find include unknowns such as Sean Combs, Gloria Estefan, and Dolly Parton.
