A Modest Proposal To Solve Online Pirating Problems

[Yavin4]

Here's a modest proposal that I believe will solve ALL downloading and pirating problems. Why can't the entire music, film, video, TV, radio, and other entertainment providers form a new copyright group, like A.S.C.A.P. does for music, and this group will attach a small fee to every ISP bill, say a $1 or $2. This way ALL content on the internet will be available to everyone, legally!

[Deja Q]

1. Make everything free. Without money, you wouldn't believe how quickly

piracy, corporate book cooking, drug sales, and other crimes go right down the toilet.

[Madrone]

2. I work for an ISP, and I say -

HELL no! That extra dollar or 2 would cost likely in excess of $10 in terms of man hours spent dealing with billing issues, etc.

Besides - I don't believe the entertainment industry would find that satisfactory. It's not enough, not ENOUGH, NEVER enough!

[Yavin4]

7. How So?

Each fee is collected from the subscribers and paid right out to the creative collection agency. If you're Verizon and you have 150,000 subscribers, then you cut a $300,000 check every month. Where's the problem?

[Trillo]

3. How do all creators receive their royalty?

If everything becomes free, then they'll hand out free food at the market? Shelter won't cost?

[Deja Q]

4. Why not? It gets everybody's needs met. I mean, we all complain about

the homeless and hungry.

Let's do something about it.

Money only leads to problems anyway.

[Trillo]

5. My 2nd point was how does collecting a fee from ISPs

translate to my getting 'non-electronic items' I need to live for free? Isn't there a paradox there? I'm supposed to pay to get "free" things? (for clarity, I'm deliberately mixing electronic and physical) Where do I get the money to pay the fee?

My first point is how do all creators receive their royalties? Sure, the big names might through the membership organization, but what of all the other Internet-based content creators? How will they receive their cuts for their content?

Don't get me wrong, I always loved the Star Trek idea that money had been abandoned, in their future, for the concept of people bettering themselves. I was always disappointed that economists were not consulted and a plausible scenario for that plot device told (or shown).

How does a moneyless society work so that all have enough to thrive? Please note that a moneyless society is not the same as an e-currency-based economy.

[Yavin4]

6. "Creators" Would Have to Register with the Fee Collecting Agency

Just like record producers register with BMI and ASCAP in order to get a piece of the fee. Some arrangement would have to be negotiated as to how much of the pie people would get. Maybe internet creators would be allowed to get their own fee collection system. Or, maybe they'd have to show that they've been online for a period of time and collected a minimum amount of money, whatever.

Bottom line is, there's no way to completely prohibit all forms of online pirating. No way. So, the only fair thing to do is for the ISP to collect the money from their subscribers and pay the fees to the creative producers.

[Trillo]

8. I can't speak with any knowledge of the recording industry,

but if it's like the publishing industry, of which I know 'a little', then membership in that organization that distributes the fees collected to artists probably costs enough that the little guy passes all their royalty earnings, or more than all, to the membership organization. (In publishing, there are defacto barriers of several kinds for entry into the larger organizations, until one's company becomes large with many titles.)

Right now, Internet access allows smaller artists a better ability for an audience to find them than existed before the Internet became popular. This would be minimized on your plan, because there's a higher cost to Internet entry which artists would have to meet. As well, the audience on the Internet would always be paying the fee to select artists whether they listened to, read, or saw that particular artist's work.

IOW, the system develops a hierarchy where only the largest, most popular artists with large audiences can support themselves from the distributed royalty after costs are considered. In like manner, only the largest 'labels' will be able to afford the cost of entry to the member organization. It becomes a way of minimizing the inherent decentralization of the Internet for the benefit of a few.

On the Internet right now, the 'poor' artist doesn't subsidize the 'rich' artist unless they decide to purchase.

[Yavin4]

9. You Misread My Proposal

You will still be allowed to sell or distribute whatever you want on the internet. You don't have to join the publishing agency. The sole purpose of the publishing agency is to recover some of the fees lost to downloading piracy.

If you can establish that your music, videoes, pictures, etc. have a sales history, then you can participate in the publishing royalty.

[Trillo]

10. Would there be a way for people to establish that they

don't knowingly pirate anything, then get out of the fee obligation?

If not, how fair is it for those who don't pirate to subsidize those who do?

On principal, I also don't like user fee systems, they punish people of meager means more than people of modest means, and both of those groups to greater degree than the Uber-Elites. The poor pay relatively more (larger percetage) of their disposable income than do the rich for any set fee (you mentioned 1-2 bucks).

[Yavin4]

11. Unfortunately, No.

When you subscribe to cable, you get channels that you don't want. However, you pay for them anyway. I hardly ever use my cell phone, but I have to pay a tax for the service.