MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-04-05 |
| FROM | From: "Michael L. Richardson"
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Tax the Internet
|
What about those who do not download music or movies? Yes they are out
there.
*****
Check this out:
www.globalabundanceprogram.com/mlr52
*****
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Check this out:
www.globalabundanceprogram.com/mlr52
***************************************
Ruben Safir wrote:
> Having failed to stop piracy by suing internet users, the music industry
> is for the first time seriously considering a file sharing surcharge
> that internet service providers would collect from users.
>
> In recent months, some of the major labels have warmed to a pitch by
> Jim Griffin, one of the idea's chief proponents, to seek an extra fee on
> broadband connections and to use the money to compensate rights holders
> for music that's shared online. Griffin, who consults on digital strategy
> for three of the four majors, will argue his case at what promises to
> be a heated discussion Friday at South by Southwest.
>
> "It's monetizing the anarchy," says Peter Jenner, head of the
> International Music Manager's Forum, who plans to join Griffin on
> the panel.
>
> Griffin's idea is to collect a fee from internet service providers --
> something like $5 per user per month -- and put it into a pool that
> would be used to compensate songwriters, performers, publishers and
> music labels. A collecting agency would divvy up the money according to
> artists' popularity on P2P sites, just as ASCAP and BMI pay songwriters
> for broadcasts and live performances of their work.
>
> The idea is controversial but -- as Griffin and Jenner point out -- hardly
> without precedent. The concept of collecting a fee for unauthorized
> use of music was developed in France in 1851 as a way of reimbursing
> composers whose work was being performed without their permission in
> cafes and the like.
>
> The practice spread to the United States in 1914 and currently applies
> to radio airplay and webcasts in addition to live performances. In a
> 2004 white paper, the Electronic Frontier Foundation called for it to
> be applied to file sharing, but the Recording Industry Association of
> America immediately dismissed the proposal.
>
> Things are different now. "The labels are beginning to like the idea of
> an access-to-music charge," says Jenner, who once managed Pink Floyd and
> the Clash, "because they're increasingly aware that their current model
> is broken." U.S. music sales, which peaked in 1999 at nearly $15 billion,
> dropped to $11.5 billion in 2006. Last year's figures are still being
> tallied, but with CD sales cratering and online sales overwhelmingly
> dominated by singles, the only question is how far they'll fall.
>
> Meanwhile, the industry's antipiracy efforts appear more and more
> futile. Digital rights management, long touted as a solution, has been all
> but abandoned. And though the RIAA is said to have threatened or taken
> action against some 20,000 suspected file sharers, the market-research
> firm NPD Group reports that nearly 20 percent of U.S. internet users
> downloaded music illegally last year. The score to date: 0.02 million
> alleged P2P users down, 40.98 million to go.
>
> At the music industry trade show MIDEM last year, John Kennedy, the
> head of IFPI -- the RIAA's international affiliate organization --
> offered modest support for the kind of licensing fee Griffin and
> Jenner propose. "It's a model worth looking at," he said at a press
> conference. "If the ISPs want to come to us and look for a blanket
> license for an amount per month, let's engage in that discussion."
>
> The tone at the January 2008 MIDEM in Cannes, France, was more
> combative. Longtime U2 manager Paul McGuinness said in a widely reported
> speech that it was time to hold ISPs responsible for the file sharing
> deluge. McGuinness wants network operators to cut off those the industry
> deems offenders -- an approach France's Sarkozy government is already
> pushing in that country. "If ISPs do not cooperate voluntarily,"
> McGuinness declared, "there will need to be legislation to force them
> to cooperate," McGuinness said.
>
> Behind closed doors, however, MIDEM attendees discussed the prospect
> of collecting money from ISPs instead. An invitation-only meeting on
> the subject drew about 50 people, including representatives of IFPI,
> Sony BMG, T-Mobile, the giant European ISP and mobile-carrier Orange,
> and performing-rights organizations like BMI. The response, according to
> Jenner, "ranged from 'What do we do now?' to 'It sounds good, but can
> it possibly work?' A lot of people are like rabbits in the headlights:
> They're terrified they're going to lose their jobs. No one dares to feel
> that this might be the solution."
>
> Even so, notes Shira Perlmutter, IFPI’s head of legal policy, “none of
> our members are ruling anything out. These companies are all very open to
> creative new ideas that would allow customers to do things they want --
> including using file sharing technologies.â€
>
> Not everyone sees the two approaches as an either-or situation. "I love
> Paul McGuinness' idea," says another scheduled SXSW panelist, Dina LaPolt,
> a Los Angeles attorney who represents Mötley Crüe and the estate of
> Tupac Shakur. "And I love the idea of trying to make ISPs pay artists
> and make up for all the free crap that's going on. I support both,
> so long as artists are getting paid for their work."
>
> Whether ISPs will be willing to ante up remains far from clear,
> especially since many users can be expected to protest the extra
> charge. One option would be to introduce different service tiers and
> impose the surcharge only on customers who buy enough bandwidth to make
> file sharing feasible. But for ISPs, other music-industry demands could
> be far more onerous.
>
> In the weeks since MIDEM, antipiracy zealots have been using McGuinness's
> speech as a rallying cry. Last month the British media reported that a
> government white paper was about to call for legislation to force ISPs
> to move against suspected file sharers. As it turned out, the white
> paper merely included a vague call for "voluntary, preferably commercial
> solutions" by April 2009.
>
> Just Monday, the four majors sued the largest ISP in Ireland in an
> attempt to force it to block illicit downloads. Attorneys for Eircom
> retorted that it was not legally obligated to monitor its network traffic.
>
> AT&T has been looking into content-sniffing technology that could turn it
> into a spy agency for music labels and film studios, but most ISPs seem
> distinctly unenthusiastic about the idea. They have good reason to be.
>
> Technology experts say it would be impossible to reliably inspect
> trillions of packets for pirated material, especially if file sharing
> networks resort to encryption mechanisms. Legal experts point out that
> any attempt by an ISP to monitor its traffic in this way would jeopardize
> its status as a common carrier. It could also leave the ISP open to
> lawsuits from subscribers who get cut off without good reason. And
> financial experts say it would cost a bundle to implement.
>
> But the bottom line is, it simply won’t work. “Ultimately there is
> no real hope of eradicating copyright-infringing technology,†says
> another SXSW panelist, Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, which tracks
> the popularity of music online. “You can push piracy around, discourage
> people from doing it in this or that venue, but I don’t think in even
> the most Orwellian scenario you could reduce massive infringement in a
> comprehensive way.â€
>
> So, which will it be: A last-gasp assault on piracy, or a truce that
> would bring in money and benefit everyone except the lawyers?
>
> At this point, the music industry seems too dazed to decide -- and several
> nights in Austin probably won't help. Though Jenner and McGuinness are
> on opposite sides of the debate, their good cop-bad cop routine could
> ultimately prove synergistic. Pay up, the music people are telling
> internet providers, or we'll sic Washington on you -- and London and
> Paris and anybody else we can find. Yahoo! Buz
>
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