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

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

If my memory serves me right EFF, at least the Board, had mixed feelings djf

________________________________________
From: Jonathan Zittrain [zittrain@law.harvard.edu]
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2008 11:26 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: RE: [IP] Music industry proposes a piracy surcharge on ISPs

Dave,

 From what I can tell from Jim Griffin's reply, he supports a tax on
ISPs in *exchange* for legalization of music sharing among those
ISPs' subscribers.  If that's what he's saying, then it could
represent progress -- a good chunk of the pressures to surveill and
control users' online behavior will evaporate if content publishers
see benefit from abundance rather than scarcity of their work.  A
number of scholars, including Terry Fisher and Neil Netanel, have
proposed a scheme like this, and EFF has been supportive.  See
<http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2004/05/63474> for a
story about it from 2004, and <http://www.tfisher.org/PTK.htm> for
chapter 6 of Fisher's chapter, which methodically lays out the case
and responds to many of the reasons to be skeptical, including the
observation that non-consumers of the music covered would be paying
for something they don't use.  See also <http://www.noankmedia.com/>
for a venture founded by Fisher that's experimenting with this system
in China.  ...JZ


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