Music industry watch

EFF: Voluntary Collective Licensing

The EFF has written an article on Voluntary Collective Licensing, which is another alternative compensation system. While the approach from the EFF is a lot more level-headed than Prof Fisher's naive approach fundamentally it is not any different from the other proposed systems.

The EFF approach also suggests a Nielson type approach for determining whose music is popular and therefore who should get paid. My objections are still the same:

• Crooks will wreak havoc with this system.
• This system maintains or increases the barriers to entry for new artists.
• Top down systems like Nielson ratings are unsuited for the net.

The EFF draws the comparison between radio and file sharing and how the radio/performing-rights societies model could be used to compensate artists for people trading their files on P2P systems. If the dot com era taught me anything, its that brick and mortar business models cannot be readily be grafted onto the Internet. Yet, the EFF proposes to do the very same thing.

I don't hold radio or the ASCAP/BMI in very high regard. There are so many things wrong with radio (e.g. FCC, Payola, ClearChannel) that I would hesitate to use this as a model for anything in the future.

The proper system for rewarding artists when their music gets traded on file sharing systems must be a forward looking system that embraces the nonrivalrous nature of digital music. It should not be rooted in outdated systems that still attempt to shoehorn digital music into a rivalrous container.

Posted by Mayhem at February 25, 2004 12:26 PM