http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/19/is..._man_music_tax/

 

The Register

By Andrew Orlowski

Music and Media

19 January 2009

 

Tax haven the Isle of Man, with a population of around 80,000, wants to

introduce a compulsory blanket licence for music downloads. Broadband ISP

subscribers would pay a "nominal" compulsory tax, but be able to share music

legally.

 

Surprisingly, the proposal has won approval from the chief executive of the

BPI, Geoff Taylor.

 

"At the end of the day, we are not going to stop piracy, so let's embrace

it," the Manx government's inward investment minister Ron Berry told the

MidemNet conference this weekend.

The idea of legalising P2P rather than stopping it is an ancient one: it's

been used to create for new technologies for over a hundred years. Where

it's too complicated and/or expensive to count or police individual

exchanges, a blanket licence has been issued. It's five years since Jim

Griffin explained the merits of these here.

 

"If ISPs take the position advocated in the Isle of Man, we'd be in an

enormously better position," Taylor responded.

 

However, many in both the tech business and the music business are wary of a

government-imposed tax. A voluntary subscription scheme would provide an

incentive for new services to be created - P2P service providers would

compete for your custom. Such a voluntary P2P scheme is expected to be

announced from a major UK ISP within a few weeks.

With a compulsory licence, ISPs would have no incentive to look after music

sharers or differentiate themselves - everybody would be able to offer

anything. And privately, labels are wary that collective agreements set a

low floor price for music royalties.

 

A large record label can pocket far more by cutting direct deals with a BT

or a Sky for a licence, rather than going the collective route. And as a

recent survey shows, 81 per cent of users may not be considered "music

sharers", so would chafe at being slapped with a tax.

 

But the approach has its supporters, including music manager Peter Jenner.

We reported on a lively debate about voluntary vs compulsory approaches here

in November. Summing up the differences at MidemNet this weekend, UK Music's

Feargal Sharkey said most speakers were agreed on 80 per cent of the

substance, only five per cent was hotly contested.

It's ironic that the Isle of Man is proposing a compulsory tax. The island

has no capital gains tax, corporation tax and income tax is ten per cent.

Industry sectors deemed to be of strategic importance - including movies and

fishing - are zero rated.

 

Well they did introduce the women's vote 30 years ahead of anyone else, so maybe in 30 years it'll be the same for us :lol:

Very interesting. I can't imagine music in 20 years 10 years being anything but 100% royalty free although with indirect value created for the artists who will be more then happy with the setup by then.

I wonder if a shared music is selling a single download?

I guess this works on the same premise as PRS then. Lord knows how you actually quantify popularity though...are all profits split 'equally'?

 

A 'communist' approach would make radio stations work harder - instead of just playing the songs most pushed (which costs lots of money in advertising from the majors that won't be coming in now) they'd all have to scout around for music to play.