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$5 Per Month Fee Proposed For Legal Music P2P

Posted by Soulskill on from the it's-nice-to-have-somebody-do-my-budget-for-me dept.

sneakyimp writes "Both Wired and Ars Technica have reports on Jim Griffin's proposal that ISPs charge each broadband customer $5 per month to subsidize the ailing music industry. The resulting fund would ostensibly 'compensate songwriters, performers, publishers and music labels.' Although no specific version of the proposal has been referenced, a number of controversies are inherent to the plan: How is the money really divided? What happens when the MPAA, the Business Software Alliance, and various other industry groups want their own surcharge added? What about the supposed majority of broadband customers who never download illegal music? Griffin discussed the plan further at SXSW . We've previously discussed a similar proposal from the Songwriters Association of Canada.

3 of 528 comments (clear)

  1. I love paying for stuff I don't use by cunamara · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Great, here's a plan. Jack up my broadband costs by $5 per month to subsidize the incompetent music industry... BUT I DON'T DO P2P! I don't download music in general because MP3's suck to listen to. The only downloaded music I have is legal Dead shows, downloaded mostly in lossless formats. Every torrent application I have tried was pitifully slow, much slower than a simple download from a server, since there were usually more leechers than peers (not to mention all those Comcast users with throttled bandwidth). Who needs that bullshit?

    It sort of reminds me of a few years back when I was an independent contractor and the business's worker's compensation company tried to charge me $50 a month to not be insured by them.

    The idiots in the music business need to get a clue. And frankly, at this point, who the heck cares if the majors go belly up? It's not like it'd be a huge loss in terms of great art.

  2. It's a good idea by doofusclam · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I pay $5 a month, and my IP address is immune from any RIAA lawsuits concerning music torrents.

    I would pay that, and so would anyone I know. Somehow however I think their idea won't work like that.

  3. Re:Apple won't like it... by psychodelicacy · · Score: 0, Redundant

    The parent got modded "insightful"? This really pisses me off. Someone can post something that adds nothing to the discussion other than to insult the original poster, and it's "insightful". I know that being anti-copyright-infringement isn't popular here, but the level of prejudice shown in moderations on this topic is astounding.

    And no doubt this is "-1 Redundant".

    --
    A closed mouth gathers no foot.