She was one of the keynote speakers at the Digital Hollywood Conference in New York on May 16th and began her speech by stating, “"It's become quite fashionable lately for artists to express outrage at music piracy, and I'm a fashionable gal. Stealing artists music without paying for it fairly is absolutely piracy, and I'm talking about major-label recording contracts, not Napster." Love accused the major labels of making millions, leaving many artists in debt or with a fraction of the profits. Many recording contracts allow for the labels to deduct expenses such as promotion, tour expenses, recording cost and other expenses against the royalties paid to the performer. The book “Hitmen” sites the band Scandal as a classic example of this common practice by record companies to recoup expenses against artist royalties. Scandal had a major hit with their single “the Warrior” in the early 80’s. The album went platinum but the band was still in debt to the record company. After having sold over a million records the band ended up with nothing.  So when faced with fans trading mp3’s online the controversial Love joked, "Recording artists have been giving music away for free for so long, it doesn't really matter." 

She defended Napster with following statement, “ It's not piracy when kids swap music over the Internet using Napster, There were one billion music downloads last year but music sales are way up, so how is Napster hurting the music industry? It's not.” The outspoken front women of Hole went on to blast Napster bashers,  “The only people scared of Napster are people who have filler on their albums and are scared that if people hear more than one single, they're not going to buy the record."

She feels that the Record Companies are the real thieves. "Stealing our copyright provisions in the dead of night when no one is looking is piracy.” She said just before condoning Napster use.  She is currently entrenched in a fierce legal battle with Geffen Records. Geffen contends that Hole owes the label five more albums, Hole is claiming that there is a loophole in California law that frees them from further obligation to the record company because seven years have passed since the time they signed their deal.  She reflects on her Geffen deal with distaste, “Working at 7-11 would have been a better deal.”

Courtney is excited about changes that many foresee in the music industry as the result of the Digital Revolution. She announced that Hole is leaving the Major Label system and will delve more into the Internet side of things.  To bring that point home, Love said, “It's a radical time for musicians, a really revolutionary time, and I believe revolutions are a lot more fun than cash, which by the way we don't have at major labels anyway, so we might as well get with it and get in the game. Everyone's been calling me, from Sheryl Crow to Beck to the Beastie Boys. I don't know anybody that isn't watching my case and not really excited about what's going to happen."

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