There is certainly a lot of debate in the air about the way that the RIAA operates, punishing individuals with excessive fines for acts of illegal filesharing. However, they defend themselves with the argument that what they are doing is protecting the copyrighted work of the musicians who have worked so hard to create original works of art. If that’s the case, why are some major artists starting to get disgruntled about the fact that RIAA hasn't actually ever given most of them any of the money that they’ve gained through these fines? Reports indicate that the RIAA has garnered as much as $400 million in settlement fines that haven’t been passed along to the artists whose copyrights were violated. The recording industry says that the money has just been delayed due to the complexity of figuring out how to divvy it up but some artists are starting to get antsy enough about the issue that they are threatening legal action.