Isle of Man – world music download capital
p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- Are inhabitants of the Isle of Man, a tax haven off the coast of England, prepared to financially support the music download habits of everyone on the island so they can get all-you-can-eat music for free?
And would ISPs be willing to act as tax collectors?
The Isle of Man, with its strange coat of arms, three bent human legs running endlessly on a red field, is already world famous, but for the Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) Race, a motorcycle event held there every year since 1907, not music downloads.
But under a plan mooted by Ron Berry, Isle of Man ‘inward investment manager,’ people with broadband subscriptions would pay a “nominal monthly license fee” to, “legally download music from any source, even peer-to-peer services that are outlawed currently,” says the New York Times.
“Unlike illegal file-sharing services, which the music industry says are responsible for billions of dollars in lost sales, these new offerings are perfectly legal,” it said, reporting on the Midem corporate music industry love-in, apparently unaware a US Federal judge had cast icy water on Big 4 claims that files shared automatically equal the loss of staggering amounts of money.
Nor would the services really be free, admitted the story.
Payment would come in the form of, say, “a new cellphone or a broadband Internet access contract, so the cost to the consumer is disguised,” said the story, also pointing out, “unlike pirate sites, these services provide revenue to the music companies”.
But a second New York Times item has John Kennedy, the man who runs Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry), saying plans like this are effectively a “state-imposed tax that would be unworkable in practice and discriminate against consumers who want Internet access without music services”.
The fee could be as little as £1 ($1.38), says the story, noting the concept of a so-called blanket license to distribute music digitally has been been around for ever and that there are precedents for such systems in Europe, “where many countries have mandatory license fees for television owners to finance public broadcasting”.
Not only but also, “In 2006, a French proposal similar to the one being discussed on the Isle of Man made it to Parliament, but it was rejected after fierce lobbying from copyright owners,” it says, going on:
“The government later threw its weight behind a new approach: requiring Internet service providers to disconnect persistent pirates.
“That plan is still wending its way through the legislature, but it has drawn interest elsewhere, including in Britain. (While the Isle of Man shares a head of state with the United Kingdom – the queen – it has its own parliament and makes its own laws.)
“There, policy makers are dangling the threat of a system like France’s plan to disconnect pirates, to try to get Internet providers and the music companies to agree on ways to stimulate the development of legitimate digital music sales and to curb piracy.”
all-you-can-eat music – Big 4 labels set to copy pirates, January 19, 2009
New York Times – Music Industry Imitates Digital Pirates to Turn a Profit, January 18, 2009
cast icy water – `Files shared don`t equal sales lost,` judge rules, January 16, 2009
New York Times – Isle of Man Plans Unlimited Music Downloads, January 25, 2009
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January 27th, 2009 at 10:52 am
I wonder if that is 1pound for your internet *and* cellphone ??
Double dip much ?
February 16th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Ron Berry has a VERY bad reputation amongst the IOM musicians for reason which I will not divulge here, suffice to see that Mr Berry would most likely benefit more than anyone from such a scheme.
You have to ask the question, how on Earth is music going to survive is no one wants to pay musicians for making musicâ¦and for the fees Mr Berry is suggesting that are paid to record companies, that would equate to the tiniest fraction of a penny per year to the musicians themselves.
In a nutshell, treat Mr Berry with a GREAT deal of cautionâ¦.
February 16th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
” how on Earth is music going to survive is no one wants to pay musicians for making music ”
Music has been around for a very long time.
Musicians made music because it was their passion.
Music as an ‘industry’ has not been around nearly as long.
If you are a musician for the sole purpose of making money at it, i’ll
wager your product will sound just like .. well .. product.
If the industry folds, musicians will continue to write and play, as they always\
have, for the love of it.
The industry needs artists, not the other way around.