Why a Music Tax Is a Bad Idea

Posted by timothy on Wednesday December 10, 2008 @10:09AM from the let-me-count-the-ways dept.

An anonymous reader writes with a followup to the story posted last week about Warner Music's plan for a music tax for universities. "There's been some debate about this plan and Techdirt has a detailed explanation of why a music tax is a bad idea, noting that it effectively rewards those who failed in the marketplace, punishes those who innovated and sets up a huge, inefficient and unnecessary bureaucracy. Meanwhile, plenty of musicians who are experimenting with new business models are finding that they can make more money and appeal to more fans. So, why stymie that process with a new bureaucracy that simply funds the big record labels?"

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Re:More reasons why it's a bad idea by Pinky · 2008-12-10 10:31 · Score: 1, Offtopic

Given that Canada current has a "music tax" (on blank media) and the courts have ruled that it's legal to download material off file sharing site (but not share material yourself) and this has been the case for some time now... not to mention it's country wide instead of just on university campuses.. Has everything imploded? the tax gone up dramatically? People stop buying music/movies entirely? No. Have they been clamoring for more "taxes". No.