The legal issue's. The largest opponent of mp3's is the RIAA ( Recording Industry Association Of America) by far, instead of embracing Mp3's as a new technology and taking advantage of the usefulness of the digital format they stood strongly against Mp3's. Here is a quote from the RIAA website

" MP3 is a technology that allows music to be easily compressed in digital form so that it can be readily uploaded onto a computer or a network. There are artists who have been using MP3 technology for their own work -- music that they own the rights to. The RIAA and our members support copyright owners' rights - including their right to make their own technology choices. There are also, however, thousands of songs on the Internet in the MP3 format that are not authorized by the artists or record company. It is simply not fair to take someone else's music and put it on-line for free distribution. No one wants their property taken from them and distributed without their permission. Why should artists be treated any differently?"

Ok that's their opinion but for those that can remember when cassette's came out. This is the same group that Screamed piracy when people started copying there cassette's. But did the music industry go broke ? No they didn't. The problem with the recording industry is that they are worried that the Musicians that we all love, are going to get smart and realize that the 20% cut that the record labels pay them is way to little. And that they will be able to market their own music over the net. What a day that will be. Going to your Favorite Musicians Website and buying your Music from them. You will have the pleasure of knowing that the money that you spend is going to the Band or Artist that brings you such pleasure. Lets be honest Musician's are Artist's , did the great painter's split their profits.. Maybe a little but the didn't give away 80% to a greed middle man with no creativity. MP3's Are here to stay. To add to this the people that I know personally that have large Mp3 collections, buy far more Cd's than the average listener.