[IP] Re: Music industry proposes a piracy surcharge on ISPs

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: David P. Reed [dpreed@reed.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2008 2:55 PM
To: Brett Glass
Cc: Richard Bennett; David Farber; ip; Gordon Peterson; scott@bluespike.com; Rbohn@ucsd.edu; griffin@onehouse.com; Kenneth_Mayer@Dell.com; vxm@miglia.com
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:     Music industry proposes a piracy surcharge on  ISPs

Tom Paine, Tom Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and other American
revolutionaries would roll over in their graves.  Of course, American
history is no longer taught sufficiently to understand what the
revolution was about.  Now we seem to be teaching that democracy is
merely holding elections to elect Sovereigns (like Bush claims to be)
and handing out tax money to the star-making machinery of the world
because our leaders like Clinton and Bush like to hang with the
Hollywood crowd for the sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll...

You guys are Tory luntics.

Brett Glass wrote:
> I am not in favor of volume metered pricing, either. However, the one advantage of it is that the music/movie "tax" could be based on statistics which were already being collected for each user (the bill would say how many gigabytes each customer was using). So, the only thing left to do would be to figure out what percentage of those bytes were music or movies on which royalties were owed and how they should be divided (a la ASCAP).
>
> --Brett Glass
>
> At 05:55 PM 3/14/2008, Richard Bennett wrote:
>
>
>> The first time I heard this proposal, the source was Fred von Lohman of the EFF. At the Net Neutrality 2008 Symposium in Frisco this January, Fred was on a panel with the esteemed Mr. Frankston and myself (as well as a few others) and Fred said the surcharge was the EFF's way to resolve the piracy issue without looking deeply at port numbers at what-not. I don't prefer the scheme as it would make Granny pay for the music of teenagers that she would never steal on her own, but you have to admit support for such a plan comes from diverse corners. The EFF is also in favor of volume-metered pricing, which is another thing I'd like to avoid.
>>
>> RB
>>
>> David Farber wrote:
>>
>>> ________________________________________
>>> From: David P. Reed [dpreed@reed.com]
>>> Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 1:09 PM
>>> To: David Farber
>>> Cc: ip
>>> Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   Music industry proposes a piracy surcharge on ISPs
>>>
>>> Music guys (Griffin), ISP's (Glass) ... all want to get the government
>>> to apply a tax to feed their coffers.   What ever happened to
>>> competition and free markets?
>>>
>>> Reminds me of pre-Elizabethan (Queen Elizabeth I) England, when a patent
>>> was not based on an invention - a "patent" in those days was a monopoly
>>> on any trade or business granted by the King to his deserving buddies
>>> and courtiers. In 1624, England outlawed  all such "letters patent" by
>>> the King to his courtiers.  But we love to bring them back in modern
>>> America - viz. ASCAP/BMI, the "piracy tax" applied to videotape, etc.
>>>
>>> (Elizabeth initiated the modern patent concept that requires an
>>> invention as a way to break the power of the guilds and fix the balance
>>> of trade - not for any particularly good reason like encouraging
>>> invention - that framing of / rationale for gov't patent and copyright
>>> handouts was first crystallized in the US Constituion).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>
>> --
>> Richard Bennett
>>
>
>
>

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