I think labels do lots of thing for the artist but the main thing is marketing. Then if you release your album independently you keep all the money but you're on your own and it must be very hard or impossible to get your songs on the radio. Since we haven't heard a Vanessa Carlton song on the radio since "White Houses" would it be that big a change?
Talking about the album being released outside the US, I think when you're on your own you won't be able to have the album in stores, fans around the world would have to buy it on the internet. Funny fact, "Harmonium" was never officially released in Europe but "Heroes & Thieves" was (and even before the US !), so The Inc. weren't
that bad
I'm not in the music industry, so everything could as well be wrong... lol except the the last line