Pat,

It's a bad system, to be sure. The big dogs get all the money. BMI,ASCAP. et al are a bunch of crooks. But then, so are the managers, booking agents, record companies, publishers,club owners and everyone else involved in the business.
The RIAA is the worst of the lot, but the indy world is changing all of that now. The people now have the technology, and that has the Mustache Petes running scared. There are artists making more money now marketing themselves than they ever would with a record deal.