"They are all potential victims of online music piracy," Jay Berman, the CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) told music executives in his annual address at the Midem music conference in southern France.

"In truth, online music piracy is not about free music. The music creators and rights holders, denied the right to choose how their music is used and enjoyed, are in fact paying the price," Berman said in a fiery speech.

The music industry is facing its fourth straight year of declining sales. Executives blame the rise of Internet file-sharing services such as Grokster, Kazaa and Morpheus, plus rampant CD copying by consumers and organized criminal groups.

Undeterred, Berman said the IFPI would step up its litigation efforts against online piracy on behalf of its music label trade members, targeting individuals who download who download many songs.

Berman also criticized comments made by chart-topping British pop star Robbie Williams (news), who Saturday called file-sharing "great."

"There's nothing anybody can do about it," Williams said at a news conference, a statement that later struck a nerve with music executives who have congregated in the swanky French Riviera city to figure a way to curb online piracy.

Berman pointed to the fact that file-sharing and CD-copying are eating into the sales of the biggest stars. In the past two years, only one artist, Eminem (news - web sites), has sold over 10 million CDs in a single year, once a commonly hit benchmark for supremacy.