Kazaa, Verizon Propose Compulsory Music Licensing

akb writes "USA Today is reporting on an interesting new alliance between Kazaa, the dominant file sharing network, and Verizon, a company with revenues of $67 billion. The two companies are floating a proposal to ISPs and the computer and manufacturing industries to lobby to force the music industry to license their music. Royalties would be payed to artists directly, thus circumventing the stranglehold the RIAA has on the music industry."

Comments

Far too sane, look who is talking...

[killthiskid]

My first thought: this is far to sane to actually take place. Then I read:

Kazaa lobbyist Phil Corwin says a $1-a-month fee per user on Internet providers alone (it's unclear whether costs would be passed along to subscribers) would generate $2 billion yearly: "We're talking about a modest fee on all the parties who benefit from the availability of this content."

Recording Industry Association of America president Hilary Rosen calls the proposal "the most disingenuous thing I've ever heard. It's ridiculous."

Sooo, let me get this straight: it is riciculous to directly pay the artist who produce the music.

Well, this is very telling. I sincerly hope compulsory license comes to be... it seems about the only way to tame the RIAA beast. Maybe it will even save internet radio.

GNU and DAT

[akb]

Who remembers the DAT tax? Before doing digital audio on computers was made practical by mp3 and cd-r there was DAT. And the music industry clamped down hard to prevent it from becoming a consumer product. So they got a tax placed on DAT media and devices and had a chip implanted in every DAT device to prevent copying.

Thought it was relevant to this, but didn't think the slashdotters would let me do a feature ;)

Anyhoo, here's some reference links

The right way to tax dat by RMS

Phillip Greenspun comments and gave testimony before the Senate.

What happens to the money that the Library of Congress collects.