The RIAA and the ever changing music industry

Well we all know about the RIAA and its practices and how it "protects" music, or better yet the people who produce, record, sell and distribute music. Anyone notice something horribly wrong here? Where, in an industry thats driven by artists, the main organization that protects music offers nothing to protect the rights of artists, instead they fight for the artists money that they keep. there are a few articles but this one is the best(http://torrentfreak.com/riaa-keeps-settlement-money-080228/) here it is addressed that after the RIAA along with the big 3 sued sites that where using artists songs without licensing them. This generated about 400 million dollars that still have not been given to any of the artists that where actually ripped off. I feel there will alway be corruption within any industry where the Producers of a product(artists) get paid last and least. Within this industry if the pay scale was reversed and artists are not owned by labels then we might have a sustainable industry. Lets take a look at the early film industry where actors like musical artists where once owned or contracted to just one studio. Now actors go by a movie to movie bases within the industry working for any studio they like and being cast for parts that fit, not just thrown in with the rest. Now what would happen if the music industry worked the same?

Food for Thought!