I'm thinking the same every time this comes up (for the last 8 years or so). Just because the contracts "ends" doesn't mean that they'll leave. They already renewed it in 2004? because they had to renegotiate it. Everyone always acts like they are completely enslaved by their record label, simply because they supposedly denied webcasts etc.? It seems to me that they have lot of freedom in what they do and that they decide a lot of stuff themselves. I guess going independent is never easy for a band, even when they are successful.
I'm not trying to defend WB here but most of the time we have absolutely no idea what happens behind the scenes, how the industry works and how decisions are made. For every "bad decision" or anything bad that happens the label gets the blame, but never does it occur to most of the people that the band makes stupid decisions/denies us this or that.