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They obviously haven't worked out the model yet - traditional broadcasters don't pay nearly as much - in Australia the equivalent body takes less than 4%.

The strongest arguments against DRM are not economic, but moral, and concerns the loss of consumer rights.

As others have noticed this is nothing new, nor is it confined to the USA - APRA here in Aus have been doing this for years, veering either side of that fine line between legitimate licensing agency and standover merchants.

They're quite well-planned about it too. Not only do they try to shakedown established businesses, they also keep an eye on new business registrations and pay them a friendly visit before opening day. I've personally seen it happen twice - two guys turn up and knock on the door while we're still fitting out the shop, act like locals interested in what kind of shop it's going to be, then launch into an almost comical "oh, I bet you could here a radio being played in the workshop from out here - it'd be a shame if some nasty happened, like getting sued for not paying the licensing fee. Knowwhatimean, Guv?"

And it's not just "euros and cents" - at one stage at least, here you could choose between being 'nickel and dimed' to death by having to keep your own records and paying on a per-song basis, or pay several hundred dollars up-front for a blanket yearly license.

FWIW, here's the APRA page on the matter. According to them, you even need a non-retail license to copy music to your iPod for personal use. I wonder if anyone's actually bought one of those for that purpose?

Tracking individual installs in barely feasible within one organisation; either you use this to give the BSA a mandate to monitor business software installs for you (because this would give them increased regulatory power to detect piracy), and/or you take the music industry approach and make assumptrions about what individuals are doing, Ummm, let's say every PC has Windows, Office and a couple of games on it.... Naturally big companies will be able to "negotiate" favourable rates lest they leave the state (tax breaks are a standard deal remember), presumably leaving SMEs and individuals to take the rough end. This proposal has so much potential for government and industry to collude!

We're also stuck with the not-in-the-US-then-you-can't-get-this-cool-thing problem here in .au. Its especially annoying with services like iTunes, which for me, is something that I'd use regularly. I'm about to invest in an iPaq with the goal of buying a lot of eBooks (actual softcover paper books cost like AU$25 now - the new Tom Clancy was _$50_ in hardcover when it was released, are you kidding?!). I forgot to check to see if I can buy eBooks online, so hopefully I can.

If not, I'm giving up on waiting for the world to get their ass into gear about it, and I'll do whatever I can to get these eBooks (and iTunes/Napster/whatever is best at the time tracks). Fortunately I have relatives in the US, so if worse comes to worse, I can get them to run a proxy there and use their billing details to do it all. Still, I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO. The whole point of this stupid Internet thing is that its global.

Incidentally, there are a few online music retailers in Australia. Destra Music and BigPond Music. Both of these only supply heavily DRM'ed WMA versions (which I've heard are at a fairly low bit rate), so most people with a clue aren't interested (not to mention their range of music is extremely limited).

I've spent a good chunk of time in the last couple of months trying to figure out what is involved in setting up a legal online music distribution thing - either for streaming/Internet radio or to sell music - our company is one of the largest content distributors (via our mirrors sites) in Australia so I think it'd be something we'd be good at.

However, it is practically impossible to find out what you need. While APRA, the company responsible for licensing the musical work, have been quite helpful, that is only half of what licensing you need - you also need to license the mechanical work (the recording). At this point in time, no one in Australia represents record companies to do this (eg, there's noone like the Harry Fox Agency in Australia). There's the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia, but they don't issue licenses for online applications (apparently, they will be "in the next few months"...).

So, as far as I'm aware, your only option is to try and contact the record companies (each one) individually (this is what APRA told me almost straight off the bat, but I didn't believe them, so kept researching). Of the several I've tried to contact, I've had no reply (not just email - even leaving phone messages with the appropriate licensing department and not getting called back). I've contacted the Harry Fox Agency - apparently they do international licensing - but haven't heard back from them either.

To me, its no wonder the state of the industry is in such a state of shenanigans. You probably have to drive a dump truck full of money up to these guys to actually get their attention. The pathetic options available everywhere outside the US are obviously not enough to stop people pirating music - why would you bother when you're going to get a superior product (if you don't mind a bit more searching, of course) for free?

No, he said, and meant APRA. APRA are the royalty collecting body in Australia and New Zealand.

We come from a land down under, you insensitive clod!

That is when you stop performing and revert to composing. You make the dude sponsor you for that work.

Okaaay. We've got a problem here. There are artists who rely on concerts/cd sales to support their art. There are bootleggers who record/play/distribute the artist's music with no financial benefit going to the artist. There are fans of the artist who opt to download (free) or buy bootlegged (cheap) music. That's where we're at, right? Right. How about YOU go and talk to the bootlegger and get them to "sponsor" the artist and see what they say! Of course, they're going to tell you to jam it because they're making money.

We're always going to have this problem while there are people in this world who put greed before respect for one's intellectual or artistic property, and the solution isn't to simply "stop performing" - you're obviously not a struggling muso. Sure I can download songs for "free" and have my computer "play me the music".. but by doing that you're killing off the artists without them having a say about it. It's that lack of respect towards them that is killing off the live music scene also.

Check out APRA

Here in Australia, APRA protects artists who get their material played in public places, radio etc etc.. and without them, there would be a lot fewer small artists around and we'd all be restricted to listening to top 40 crap.

That is when you stop performing and revert to composing. You make the dude sponsor you for that work.

Okaaay. We've got a problem here. There are artists who rely on concerts/cd sales to support their art. There are bootleggers who record/play/distribute the artist's music with no financial benefit going to the artist. There are fans of the artist who opt to download (free) or buy bootlegged (cheap) music. That's where we're at, right? Right. How about YOU go and talk to the bootlegger and get them to "sponsor" the artist and see what they say! Of course, they're going to tell you to jam it because they're making money.

We're always going to have this problem while there are people in this world who put greed before respect for one's intellectual or artistic property, and the solution isn't to simply "stop performing" - you're obviously not a struggling muso. Sure I can download songs for "free" and have my computer "play me the music".. but by doing that you're killing off the artists without them having a say about it. It's that lack of respect towards them that is killing off the live music scene also.

Check out APRA

Here in Australia, APRA protects artists who get their material played in public places, radio etc etc.. and without them, there would be a lot fewer small artists around and we'd all be restricted to listening to top 40 crap.

Briefly, they suggest that the floodgates are open, that the rush to restrict music distribution is a lost cause, and that the way to go at this point is to collect a levy on blank CDs.

While I'm not sure I agree on the last point, it's nice to hear from somebody in the music industry with a fairly firm grip on reality.

...Ronny

In a previous life I was a taxi driver here in .au, I took the time to speak to the relevent authorities here (apra) who informed me that because the passenger could ask for the radio to be changed that there is no performance therefore no fees to be paid.

The list of conditions is pretty exhaustive, I half expect to see a fee schedule for "humming tune whilst walking down public street" or, "singing whilst engaged in aqueous hygene activities".

Xix.

Last year, I wrote to the Australasian Performing Rights Association and explained that I, as an internet user, from time to time download the odd sound file. I also don't spend too much time investigating the copyright conditions of everything I encounter.

With all this in mind it occurred to me that my activities could be depriving artists of their rightly earned royalties. I asked for a new licencing category specifically for the end user. I explained that for a small annual fee, I would feel much better knowing that I could use any content I found on the internet without breaching anyone else's rights, and that I wanted that responsiblity to end with me.

All I recieved as a response was information that APRA was creating a new licence they were going to foist onto website owners (presumably they could only force this onto Australian sites).

Since fair use laws have been watered down to the effect that they virtually down't exist anymore, I felt it was important to mention to the powers that be that I still want access to copyrighted works available in the public domain without having to bend over for it.