The stench of fear
Posted on December 3, 2003
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 122 views |
You know the music industry’s business model in serious trouble when it resorts to such pathetic, last-ditch efforts as this:
A group representing Canada’s songwriters will ask the Supreme Court of Canada to force Internet service providers to pay them royalties for the millions of digital music files downloaded each year by Canadians.
The case has broad ramifications for the Internet industry in Canada, legal experts say.
“This is the big case for the Internet. This will set the position on how we are going to treat Internet service providers, whether they are going to be seen as people who are responsible in some way for content that goes through their services,” - Music group aims to charge Internet users
Unfortunately it’ll probably work.
I’m all for paying the artists for their music and for paying the distributors a fair price for their role in the process but this is absurd. The problem here: the music industry can’t find a decent way to charge for music online that also gives them complete and absolute control over every penny passing through the process. Instead they’re going to charge you - in effect convict you of piracy in absentia and fine you - before you ever get the chance to harm their revenue model because of something you might, something you could do in the future.
It’s like the banks standing at the entrance of Home Depot and charging you a few bucks for the priviledge of walking into the place because you might buy a power tool that could help you commit a bank robbery.
For those who don’t know, you’re also already paying the music industry without your knowledge every time you buy any blank recording medium like a cassette tape or CD-ROM. The cost of those is kept artificially high in Canada because the music industry managed to convince legislators that every cassette and CD-ROM sold would be used for piracy and thus they should get a chunk of every one of those transactions.
The ability for the music industry to rationalize the patently absurd is absolutely awe-inspiring.