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Decriminalize file-sharing with taxes?

22 September 2004 7:10 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 5 comments

At the Interactive In The City conference being held in Manchester, technology journalist and author Andrew Orlowski told the music industry that music piracy should be decriminalized and that methods being used to stop it are doomed. Orlowski believes that the recording industry should embrace file-sharing instead of fighting it. He believes the recording industry should look for novel ways to generate cash for new artists. One proposal put forward is a small fee on top of an Internet subscription that could be shared equally amongst artists whose music is shared online by music lovers.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry claim to be pro-technology but against music stealing. A spokesperson said, "We think it is clear that the music industry's strategies on the internet are working, and there is a great deal more good news about the legitimate online music business than there was even a year ago, we believe that what he is proposing is a prescription for less music not more". This is hardly surprising as such a proposal may lead to less revenues for major record labels who still like to claim they are the entire music industry and without them music would not exist. According to Orlowski, technological advances will make it close to impossible to police downloading in the future, making the current tactics of the recording industry futile.

He referred to the sudden burst of new ways we might be able to use P2P networks in the near future, like Nokia's attempt at making a mobile phone that could use a P2P network to share content. He called these new technologies "peer-to-peer in your pocket". He also pointed out that new technologies to swap and share music will outwit current copy control technologies like DRM (Digital Rights Management). If the future goes to P2P being available on such small devices as mobile phones, it seems that legal online music stores such as Napster and iTunes could have only a limited life left.

Source:
BBC News

Permalink to this article

Asia-Pacific piracy is still rampant (7 December 2004)

CD pirate spared jail sentence (23 October 2004)

Morpheus to use new P2P technology (6 October 2004)

U.S. House of Representatives votes to boost penalties for online piracy (28 September 2004)

700 software piracy probes being persued by BSA (24 September 2004)

P2P networks threatened by new software LogP2P? (22 September 2004)

Scottish man jailed for piracy (22 September 2004)

Schwarzenegger deals serious blow to California file-sharers (22 September 2004)

P2P filesharing on mobile phones? (16 September 2004)

iTunes hits 100 million downloads (13 July 2004)

European song-swappers settle out of court (8 June 2004)

Napster launches service in the UK (23 May 2004)

Legal Napster service launched for Penn State (14 January 2004)

European P2P users to face American-style manhunt? (17 December 2003)

IFPI announces a "global" webcasting license (11 November 2003)

Napster 2.0 launched (29 October 2003)

IFPI released a tracking code for online music sales (10 February 2003)

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Discuss this article!
Toiletman (Senior Member) 22 September 2004 12:34
Quote: Orlowski believes that the recording industry should embrace file-sharing instead of fighting it. Finally! Someone "up there" realises you can't fight technology, you gotta adapt to it! He's clever. [ + quote]
punx777 (Senior Member) 22 September 2004 12:56
kinda like that idea... this will be an extra fee for everyone right? and clue how much it would be [ + quote]
Auslander (AfterDawn Addict) 22 September 2004 12:58
agreed [ + quote]
Pop_Smith (Senior Member) 22 September 2004 13:03
WOW, People are SMART :) This only took them how long to figure out you can't stop P2P?!?!? [ + quote]
Soulreave (Junior Member) 25 October 2004 7:27
apparently its a tax, will it be like a sales tax? or will it be for those who download on p2p? what if u download from ftps? [ + quote]