I think a lot of people are missing a point here. It's not just one sided deals and taking advantage of naive or desperate artists. Its that a lot of the entertainment industry is actually gangsters and crooks.

Music and movies and other forms of entertainment have been fantastic ways to launder money for a long long time. Maybe someone should to create a way for independent artists to "sell" for those who need a way to legally attribute their profit to the sales of something else.