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French Government May Subsidize Music Downloads
angry tapir writes "The European Commission has approved a French program to subsidize legal music downloads for young people. The Carte Musique scheme gives €25 (US$35) to French residents aged 12 to 25 to spend on music downloads or subscription services. Young people can purchase a €50 card for just €25, with the balance paid by the state."
More like fascism, this is just a form of corporate welfare. The industry couldn't figure out how to deal with piracy so now the government is subsidizing their products.
Ultimately it won't work, I doubt very much that this will really convince people to stop pirating. And on the unlikely event that it works, the question really is why does the French government need to provide a subsidy to what was apparently an issue of supply and demand.
By all means crack down on those that are distributing the copies, but that's the responsibility of the recording industry, not the government.
Where do you get that they most likely won't? I probably won't be double, but an extra 50% increse is predictable.
Normally I'm a moderately liberal individual, and am for the government helping the people, but this is asinine. This is a luxury, not a necessity. This is promoting a specific business model that should survive or fail on it's own merits, not on some kind of corporate welfare.
W.T.A.F.?
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
Not really. If you were a teenager, you would gladly spend your 25, buy 50 worth of music, and when the card is depleted you would go back to downloading illegally.
Mostly harmless.