The music industry has been opposed to just about evry new form of technology which allows the recording of data. Tape, Video, MTV… The only exception being Minidisc, because they thought it was un copyable. (or something)

I find MTV the unusual one. In that exact case, the music industry asked the question “why would people buy music when they can record it off their television.”

I think its fair to say their fears were unfounded then, comparing (in a stupid, ignorant of the details way) with TV -> internet, I will premise that theres nothing to worry about.

There’s one key difference that you appear to have overlooked here.
In the case of all the media you’ve mentioned, yes it is possible to make illicit copies of music, but in all these cases it’s necessary to have another copy from which to make your own.
In the case of tapes, this means you have to find a mate who owns their own copy of the tape. In the other cases, it involves either that or waiting until it comes on the TV. Either way, transferring copies from one person to another is limited, as you’ve got to physically take your tape round to their house. If you wanted to send your favourite band’s latest album to your mate Juan in Mexico, it would take in the region of a week or so to get to him.

However, with the advent of global communications, it merely involves loading up your P2P application of choice, searching for the band’s name, and he can have the album in a matter of minutes from any number of sources around the world. Worse still, this is currently more convenient than almost any other form of obtaining the music. It’s less effort than going down to the record shop, it’s quicker than getting your mate to burn a CD and give it to you, and it’s cheaper than using the various “pay-to-download” services (iTunes Music Store being the first that comes to mind).

Trust me when I say that the record companies do have something to worry about.