Sting and Britney take a swing at file-sharing

I bet he didn't say 'don't stand so close to me' during that little meeting...

Madonna, Britney Spears and Sting are fronting the record industry's latest assault on illegal music downloading in a series of television commercials. This latest attempt to stop music pirates in their tracks sees the stars appealing directly to their fans, imploring them to stop stealing from them by downloading tracks without paying royalties. In one of the ads, being screened in the US, Spears confronts her fans, saying "Would you go into a CD store and steal a CD? It's the same thing - people going into the computers and logging on and stealing our music." The record industry hopes to appeal to consumers' better nature by conveying the message that their downloading is directly hurting the stars they love. However, with Britney earning a reported $39.2m last year, sympathy from fans trying to save a few dollars on a CD may not be too forthcoming.