Again, the deal brokered with the music industry equates amnesty. There is no simpler way to look at it. Unlike your Flickr account, for example, you still retain purchase rights after your yearly account expires. The way I see it, that's acquiescence by the labels, via a third party, that you in fact have paid for that music, with the added benefit of an upgrade by a licensed partner. As if you handed Apple a list of music, no matter how big or distributed, that you'd like to own. Granted, under the conditions of their license agreement, but on an average .10% of the cost of the license per song (assuming 25,000 mp3's), shit man, you'd be soft not to take the offer at least once and upgrade your current library forever.

Forever, you say? Once you pay for something, regardless of the amount, it's yours.